Most people assume that wearing a burkha means you have lost your identity. They look at a covered woman and see a blank space, a ghost, a victim. But they don't see the rebellion.

I am keeping both. Because under this lipstick, my voice is loud. And under this burkha, my heart is free. What are the layers you wear that the world doesn't see? Let me know in the comments below.

I was wrong. They aren’t enemies. They are roommates in a very cramped studio apartment called my soul.

To the outside world, the lipstick is the mask. It is the armor of the corporate world, the signal of confidence, the Western shorthand for "put together." It says, I am here. I am loud. I am ambitious.