Running Away

Infidel is first and foremost about a young lady who grows up searching for herself. She is brought up to believe in certain cultural values and religious beliefs, but often finds herself questioning them and struggling. As she gets older, she becomes slightly more courageous in speaking up for herself and asking the questions she has. She opposes her mother's beatings when she is in her early teenage years.

When she wants to continue her education, she pursue a secretary school so that her mother will fund part of it for her. However, when her mother doesn't want her to work, especially because of living in a non-Muslim country, she goes around her. She fights to become her own person, so she gets permission from an elder in the clan to go back to Somalia to work, overriding her mother's wishes.

Later, when she returns to Kenya, she takes it upon herself to travel to the border with a cousin to help him retrieve his family. She fights to rescue several women and saves the life of a child through her work. She later refuses to do all the chores to maintain the house when so many people are living in it. Slowly she decides that it is up to her to form her own destiny and not just accept what other people have in mind for her.

Her father chooses her husband and marries her to him, but she is determined to let him know that it is not what she wants. When he will not listen to her and follows through anyway, she finds her own way. She runs away to Holland and becomes her own person.

Eventually, she denounces almost everything that is dear to her family. She denounces Islam and God altogether. She speaks her mind and discovers her own beliefs and the life that she wants to live.