Ushering my sister to the harem feels both proper and shameful at the same time. I've become a different person since we last met, accepting things into my life that didn't seem real when I was a sixteen-year-old girl searching for Sanctuary with my family. Now, the women of the harem have become my family.

The residents, particularly Hannah, took care of me when I first arrived. Taught me how to fit in, but also how to preserve my individualism in a society taken over by the ...