Deeyah Khan Quotes

Deeyah Khan

Profession : Director

Birth : August 7, 1977

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

Self-expression should not be a challenge that demands extraordinary talent but should be a right accessible to all.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

Attacking racism and discrimination is a very important way to work against radicalisation.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

Speech, not violence, is how we will bridge the divides between us.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan

The Trump phenomenon shows us how much fear of Muslims there is out there and how easily it can be exploited.

Deeyah Khan

Muslim women can save the world from ISIS.

Deeyah Khan

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.'

Deeyah Khan

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

Deeyah Khan

Many Muslim parents are authoritarian, which leaves young men and women with limited spaces to express themselves. Self-expression and autonomy are regarded as symptoms of 'Westernisation.'

Deeyah Khan

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.

Deeyah Khan