I'm still the same person that I used to be, with the same passions and the same dreams. The only difference is that I've become a media target, - Zahia Dehar

I arrived in France at the age of 10, with my mother and my little brother. She had divorced my father. She wanted to leave Algeria to join my grandmother here. We had a lot of family problems, we didn't have a house, we didn't know where we were going to live.

I was already behind because I didn't speak French and I was constantly changing schools. Once we had a more stable situation, I couldn't keep up anymore, I couldn't catch up. It was a shock for me because in Algeria, I was always top of the class and, suddenly, I found myself last. And all my dreams, everything I wanted to do since I was little, I knew it was no longer going to be possible. I had to find another solution.

I started going out and meeting women who took me with them. I followed them a little, I saw what they said, what they did... I felt a bit like a grown-up.