"Nobody ever asked me if this is what I wanted to be. Being a woman is just my reality. But I have been ignored, maligned, and abused because I was a girl and now a woman and that has made me so aware and sensitive of oppressed people everywhere." Takiyah Nur Amin, Ph.D is an assistant professor of Dance studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
Monica
"When I was 7 and 8 years old and living in the Dominican Republic, I was sexually and psychologically abused by a family friend. I didn't tell anyone about it until I was an adult when I confided in a Nun at my church. She helped me and counseled me and eventually I did tell my mother. Now I can talk about the abuse without crying but I still feel an empty space inside of me. I have two children and I am very protective of them, especially my 18 year old daughter." Monica works as a Custodian.