Yasmine (https://twitter.com/YasMohammedxx & https://www.yasminemohammed.com/) is a rights activist, advocating for the rights of women living within Islamic majority countries. Yasmine founded Free Hearts Free Minds (https://www.freeheartsfreeminds.com/). Her book, Unveiled, recalls her experiences growing up in a fundamentalist Islamic household & her arranged marriage to a member of Al-Qaeda.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
- Growing up in a fundamentalist Muslim household in Canada, attending Islamic school, being dressed in hijab & niqab
- Being forced into marriage with an Al Qaeda member (now in prison in Egypt), considered "strong enough to control me"
- Questioning things from a young age
- The isolation of some religious communities even in secular states
- Having a daughter & that being a catalyst for change
- Escaping from husband & family
- Going to university & learning about religions. The intoxication of being allowed to question
- "I've been wasting my whole life terrified of a figment of the imagination of some ancient man"
- "You spend so much of your life ruled by a fairy tale"
- What's real? Believing in Islam
- "It's embarrassing to admit I really did believe these things"
- "You're indoctrinated from birth... & punished for questioning"
- "You believe or you burn in hell"
- "Every aspect of your life is laid out... Questioning is challenging god himself. So you must submit"
- The life of Mohammed. The Quran as the word of god
- "You don't think 'is this a good thing to do?' you think 'is this the correct thing to do?'"
- What's real? Leaving Islam
- Taking off the hijab & being told "you need to be killed before you leave Islam" by her mother, "I will be punished for eternity for having a daughter who is an infidel"
- How a Jehovah's Witness mother might allow their child to die rather than allow a blood transfusion
- Abraham's willingness to kill his own son
- "Honour killings" (murders)
- Religious compliance as above "ordinary morality"
- Studying religion, seeing 9/11 happen & being horrified
- Seeing a BBC reporter find Bin-Laden documents mentioning Yas' ex-husband's firm
- "I needed to get my daughter out of that world before she started to think that was OK"
- Hints of fundamentalism in the atheist movement
- Appearing in Jay Shapiro's film "Islam & the future of tolerance" w/Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz
- "Meditation saved my life"
- Humility & open-mindedness at the heart of naturalism
- And more... (see YouTube for full notes)
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "wall" https://sentientism.info/wall/ w/this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.
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