Bikie gangs involve crime and fierce brotherhood for inductees. But what happens if you want to get out?

Anyone who joins an outlaw motorcycle club wants to let go of themselves. Before I joined I was down and out, with little to lose, abusing drugs and running wild on the suburban streets of Melbourne.

I was searching for a sense of belonging that riddled my life with meaning.

As an Afghan-Australian, I entered high school the year after 9/11.

After the American invasion of Afghanistan, my culture was distilled into war reports covering Operation Enduring Freedom. To the public imagination, my manufactured identity was resistant to their way of life.

On the margins of society, I carved out a path of my own with a melting pot of others who were desperate to make it.