Chapter 7 and 8 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7, "Disillusion and Deceit" steps us through the seven months which Ayaan lived in Somalia. She does not get what she expected, as many people were not living by Islamic values.

She again experiences a boyfriend relationship, which plagues both of them with guilt, as he is also a Muslim. She ends the relationship, seeing him as a hypocrite for speaking against some of the very acts they did. She continues to struggle with many questions of faith and how that should involve daily life.

She meets a maternal cousin, Mahmud, through her great aunt and has a strong physical attraction to him. With her aunt's encouragement, they decide to secretly marry before her leaves for Russia. Her wedding night was a painful sexual experience and then he left. Ayaan shared her secret only with Haweya.

Somalia falls further...