The first chapter of How Does It Feel To Be A Problem opens to a scene wherein 19-year-old Rasha travels to college on the subway. She makes eye contact with a homeless man sitting in her train car. She senses a connection between them and speculates later, while writing a poem, that this connection originates from her recent experience of being imprisoned. 

Bayoumi explains that Rasha spent most of her childhood—eighteen years, collectively—living in New York, staying mostly in Brooklyn. She was born in Damascus, Syria, and came to New York when she was 5 years old and her family was granted a tourist visa to the United States. Her family arrived in the midst of Hafez al-Assad’s rule, hoping to improve their lives and escape turbulent times in their home country. They stayed in the US attempting to gain political asylum until Rasha was 13, and Rasha’s mother gave birth to two sons (considered US citizens) while they were living in Brooklyn. After the Oklahoma City bombing, the US instituted even more anti-immigrant legislation, and Rasha’s father gave up on the slow process of trying to gain citizenship, and moved the family back to Syria. 

As she finished middle school in Syria, Rasha became more appreciative of civil rights and freedom of speech in the US.