Deeyah Khan Quotes
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We need to be able to guarantee the safety of all artists and activists for human rights so that it no longer takes extraordinary courage to call for a better world - so that every person with the ability to imagine peace, equality, progress, and justice can express their dreams and hopes without fear.
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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.'
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Some women facing 'honour' crimes require relocation far outside the reaches of their extended families and changes of identity to escape detection.
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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.
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The Islamic State does not want us to open our doors to their refugees. It wants them to be hopeless and desperate. It does not want us to enjoy ourselves with our families and friends in bars and concert halls, stadiums and restaurants. It wants us to huddle in our houses, within our own social groups, and close our doors in fear.
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Extremist movements are driven by their inability to tolerate the basic human fact of pluralism. They refuse to accept the natural cultural and religious diversity of our world, seeking to impose their own beliefs and behaviours as a universal pattern for humanity.
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Muslim women can save the world from ISIS.
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Making people fear the expression of their own power is a very effective way of disempowering them. It is not just those who feel the frustration of being silenced: it also encompasses every person who has no idea of their own power to realise their visions because they have not seen this in action in their communities.
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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.
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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.
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Living through the intersections of cultural diversity has given me an intimate understanding of the dynamics of living between the dimensions of East and West, traditional and modern, and political and spiritual.
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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.
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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.
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Political and economic insecurity inevitably translates into insecurity in people's everyday lives, from lack of access to welfare to the increasing lack of security in the workplace.
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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.
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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.
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I come from a Muslim family. The label 'Muslim' is one aspect of me, but it's not the only part of me.
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I have watched the spread of violent extremism and jihadism across Europe and the U.K. with dismay, particularly given my history of experiencing threats, abuse, and harassment by Muslim fanatics.
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If our values are worth anything, we should stand up for them and live by them, both within Britain and across the world.
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People do the most remarkable things in the most difficult of circumstances.
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The thing is, what most people don't understand is that there are so many of us growing up in Europe who are not free to be ourselves. We're not allowed to be who we are. We are not free to marry or to be in relationships with people that we choose. We can't even pick our own career. This is the norm in the Muslim heartlands of Europe.
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Old, deeply engrained systems take time to change, but we can't leave it to time.
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'Honour'-based violence is a form of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a broad category.
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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.