Writer and actor Sabrina Ali, 25, is in her sunny London flat, remembering a time when she flouted authority as a 13-year-old.
“I knew I’d forget my Qur’an verse,” says Ali, “so, I pre-recorded myself reading it, put it on my iPod and played it through my earphones when it was my turn to recite.” It worked at first. Until “someone snitched” and she was made an example of. “Macalin [the Somali word for teacher] said that I should’ve put the energy I put into recording myself into just learning the Qur’an,” she says, laughing. “Everyone has funny Dugsi stories like mine.”
