After that, she educated herself on cosmology, and read Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot; the sight of the iconic Pale Blue Dot photograph was the last straw, brought her to disbelief and made her a sceptic.[10] By the age of 19, Saleem had reached a point where she no longer believed in Islam, and moved away from it.[11](2:23) She believes that "The Islam that I grew up in, that had been, you know, shoved down my throat for years, was actually being shoved down my throat to actually control me. To control what I did, what I wore, who I spoke to, and what I ate and how I thought."[11](2:35)