63 Quotes by Deeyah Khan

There is no psychiatric pattern which can predict who becomes an extremist - but they are all frustrated with their reality.

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.

Through adopting radical extremism, some young men who previously felt humiliated and emasculated by their peers can now feel powerful and intimidating - and gain status, attention from young women, and the comradeship and solidarity of other young men like themselves.

We must defend democracy using its own mechanisms, through explaining and exemplifying its merits rather than through the heavy-handed and arbitrary silencing of its critics. This is how we will build a sustainable alternative to the contorted worldview of extremists.

Our media provides a continuing message that for men, heroism is defined through association with control, independence, and the ability to commit violence, from superheroes to crime dramas.

Old, deeply engrained systems take time to change, but we can't leave it to time.

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.

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.

Freedom of expression is essential for feminists and dissidents in the Muslim world.