Words matter. These are the best Deeyah Khan Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Within a life that seems uncomfortably scripted by family and community pressures, hyper-religiosity can provide a way to break with parental expectations and flee from parental control.
If we value human rights, they should be at the core of the project against violent extremism, and women a key part of our imagined future.
We need more courageous individuals who will defy the structures of power, whether political, economic, or intimate, but we also need it to be safe for people to feel their power and to be able to express their ideas and imagine without fear.
Attacking racism and discrimination is a very important way to work against radicalisation.
As someone who grew up between two cultures, I have been fascinated with the question of why men and women with similar backgrounds to mine were drawn towards radical messages of hate and violence.
Britain has supported theocrats and dictators as long as it served British business interests, whether under Tory or Labour rule.
Extremism is a complicated issue, but without addressing how it appeals to men and boys, we may be missing an important motivation and a way to address the problems in our towns and cities.
Britain has been responsible for the undermining of democracy, turning a blind eye to abuses by its allies, using extraordinary rendition to get around the rule of law, passing over the denial of individual liberties to dissidents, and the evasion of the dismal situation for religious minorities.
Having more than one legal system running is not a sign of a healthy or inclusive society. It is just one less thing that people have in common.
I know some women’s rights activists have seen so much abuse that they can’t stand men, but I have a sense of empathy with the men. Without excusing the abuse they are capable of, many of them are trapped within these communities and bound by expectations they didn’t necessarily ask for.
Some women facing ‘honour’ crimes require relocation far outside the reaches of their extended families and changes of identity to escape detection.
There is no psychiatric pattern which can predict who becomes an extremist – but they are all frustrated with their reality.
Our society constantly promotes role models for masculinity, from superheroes to politicians, where the concept of being a ‘man’ is based in their ability to be tough, dominant – and even violent when required.
No one is born a terrorist, but the route to become one is surprisingly easy. We need to listen to those who have been there, and those who have made their way back, if we want to stop others from taking their first steps down this same path into darkness.
The self-proclaimed Islamic State cannot tolerate diversity, which is why we must celebrate it.
A hedonistic lifestyle contrary to all the rules and expectations of Islam is not an unusual precursor to radicalisation: in fact, some young radicals see joining in the jihad as a way of achieving redemption for past sins.
We need a broader perspective on what counter-radicalisation means.
Rather than shutting down free speech, we need to broaden it, to make it possible for young people to say even the things we dislike so we can talk them down. And we need politicians to articulate a picture of the future that includes all of us. Not British values but shared human values.
Freedom of speech is a human right and the foundation upon which democracy is built. Any restriction of freedom of speech is a restriction upon democracy.
Self-expression should not be a challenge that demands extraordinary talent but should be a right accessible to all.
The problem with Muslim women is less that we cannot speak the language, but that no one listens to us.
Left to the mercies of their communities, Muslim women and children remain in abusive households and face losing their financial security over issues like child maintenance and inheritance through the judgments of ‘sharia’ courts.
Some Muslim children, both male and female, have little choice in who to marry, what to study, what their careers will be, and who they can socialise with. Their lives are constrained under the expectations of family ‘honour.’
Ability to speak the majority language is not just important for inclusion; it is important for minorities to be able to claim their rights and entitlements.
We ignore the similarities between the religious extremism and ethno-nationalism at our peril.
I’m a woman of colour. I am the daughter of immigrants. I am a Muslim. I am a feminist. I am a lefty liberal.
The proportion of women attracted to the Islamic State is likely to be less than that in other militant organisations, such as the Tamil Tigers, the PKK, and the IRA. Undoubtedly, their roles within the Islamic State are much more confined by the rigid gender divisions under their ultraconservative rulings.
We cannot leave vulnerable young men open to the exploitation of extremists, both for our own security and their own wellbeing.
For many young men, joining in a radical movement is a way of feeling powerful, which is particularly intoxicating for men who feel their masculinity has been called into question, whether through victimisation or a failure to achieve the status that they feel they are entitled to.
Jihadis want to watch the world burn, to bring everything crashing down, to destroy the establishment and rebuild it after their own pitiless vision. This misguided utopianism is what makes them such effective bogeymen.
