< Return to Video

What we don’t know about Europe’s Muslim kids and why we should care | Deeyah Khan | TEDxExeter

  • 0:12 - 0:16
    When I was a child,
    I knew I had superpowers.
  • 0:18 - 0:19
    That’s right.
  • 0:19 - 0:20
    (She laughs)
  • 0:20 - 0:25
    I thought I was absolutely amazing because
    I could understand and relate to
  • 0:25 - 0:30
    the feelings of brown people like
    my grandfather, a conservative Muslim guy,
  • 0:30 - 0:35
    and also I could understand
    my Afghan mother and Pakistani father,
  • 0:35 - 0:39
    not so religious but
    laid back, fairly liberal.
  • 0:39 - 0:43
    And of course I could understand and
    relate to the feelings of white people,
  • 0:43 - 0:46
    the white Norwegians of my country.
  • 0:46 - 0:51
    You know white, brown,
    whatever, I loved them all.
  • 0:51 - 0:54
    I understood them all even if they
    didn’t always understand each other
  • 0:54 - 0:56
    They were all my people.
  • 0:56 - 0:59
    My father though was
    always really worried.
  • 0:59 - 1:03
    He kept saying that,
    even with the best education
  • 1:03 - 1:09
    I was not going to get a fair shake,
    I would still face discrimination,
  • 1:09 - 1:12
    according to him, and that the only way
    to be accepted by white people
  • 1:12 - 1:14
    would be to become famous.
  • 1:14 - 1:19
    Now mind you, he had this conversation
    with me when I was seven years old.
  • 1:19 - 1:23
    So, while I’m seven years old he said;
  • 1:23 - 1:26
    "Look, so its either got to be sports
    or its got to be music."
  • 1:26 - 1:30
    He didn’t know anything about sports,
    bless him, so it was music.
  • 1:30 - 1:34
    So when I was seven years old
    he gathered al my toys, all my dolls,
  • 1:34 - 1:37
    and he threw them all away.
  • 1:37 - 1:44
    In exchange he gave me a crappy little
    Casio keyboard, yeah, and singing lessons,
  • 1:44 - 1:49
    and he forced me basically to practice
    for hours and hours every single day.
  • 1:49 - 1:53
    Very quickly he also had me performing
    for larger and larger audiences,
  • 1:53 - 1:56
    and bizarrely I became almost
  • 1:56 - 2:00
    a kind of poster child
    for Norwegian multiculturalism.
  • 2:00 - 2:05
    I felt very proud of course because
    even the newspapers at this point
  • 2:05 - 2:07
    were starting to write
    nice things about brown people,
  • 2:07 - 2:11
    so I could feel that
    my superpower was growing.
  • 2:12 - 2:16
    So when I was 12 years old walking home
    from school I took a little detour
  • 2:16 - 2:19
    because I wanted to buy
    my favourite sweets called 'salty feet'.
  • 2:19 - 2:21
    I absolutely loved them.
  • 2:21 - 2:26
    On my way into the store, there was this
    grown white guy in the doorway,
  • 2:26 - 2:34
    blocking my way, so I tried to walk around
    him, and as I did that he stopped me,
  • 2:34 - 2:39
    and he was staring at me,
    and he spit in my face and he said;
  • 2:39 - 2:43
    "Get out of my way you little black bitch,
    you little Paki bitch, get out of my -
  • 2:43 - 2:49
    go back home where you came from."
    I was absolutely horrified.
  • 2:49 - 2:54
    I was staring at him, I was too afraid
    to wipe the spit off my face,
  • 2:54 - 2:58
    even as it was mixing with my tears.
    I remember looking around,
  • 2:58 - 3:04
    hoping that any minute now a grownup
    was going to come and make this guy stop.
  • 3:04 - 3:09
    But instead people kept hurrying past me
    and pretending not to see me.
  • 3:09 - 3:12
    I was very confused because I was thinking;
  • 3:12 - 3:16
    "Well, my white people come on.
    Where are they? What’s going on?
  • 3:16 - 3:19
    How come they’re not
    coming rescuing me?"
  • 3:19 - 3:22
    So needless to say
    I didn’t buy the sweets.
  • 3:22 - 3:24
    I just ran home as fast as I could.
  • 3:24 - 3:27
    Things were still OK though, I thought.
  • 3:27 - 3:30
    As time went on, the more
    successful I became,
  • 3:30 - 3:35
    I eventually started also attracting
    harassment from brown people.
  • 3:36 - 3:41
    Some men in my parents community felt that
    it was unacceptable and dishonorable
  • 3:41 - 3:47
    for a woman to be involved in music,
    and to be so present in the media.
  • 3:48 - 3:54
    So very quickly I was starting to
    become attacked at my own concerts.
  • 3:54 - 3:58
    I remember one of the concerts, I was
    on stage, I lean in to the audience,
  • 3:58 - 4:01
    and the last thing I see is
    a young brown face,
  • 4:01 - 4:06
    and the next thing I know is some sort
    of chemical is thrown in my eyes.
  • 4:06 - 4:09
    And I remember I couldn’t really see,
    and my eyes were watering,
  • 4:09 - 4:11
    but I kept singing anyway.
  • 4:11 - 4:17
    I was spit in the face in the streets
    of Oslo, this time by brown men.
  • 4:17 - 4:22
    They even tried to kidnap me at one point.
    The death threats were endless.
  • 4:22 - 4:26
    I remember one older bearded guy
    stopped me in the street one time and said;
  • 4:26 - 4:30
    "The reason I hate you so much is because
    you make our daughters think
  • 4:30 - 4:33
    they can do whatever they want."
  • 4:33 - 4:36
    A younger guy warned me
    to watch my back, he said:
  • 4:36 - 4:39
    "Music is un-Islamic
    and the job of whores,
  • 4:39 - 4:44
    and if you keep this up, you are going to
    be raped and your stomach will be cut out,
  • 4:44 - 4:48
    so that another whore
    like you will not be born."
  • 4:48 - 4:52
    Again I was so confused.
    I couldn’t understand what was going on,
  • 4:52 - 4:55
    my brown people now
    starting to treat me like this.
  • 4:55 - 4:59
    How come? Instead of bridging
    the worlds, the two worlds,
  • 4:59 - 5:02
    I felt like I was falling
    between my two worlds.
  • 5:02 - 5:06
    I suppose for me,
    spit was kryptonite.
  • 5:07 - 5:10
    So by the time I was 17 years old
    the death threats were endless,
  • 5:10 - 5:12
    and the harassment was constant.
  • 5:12 - 5:15
    It got so bad at one point
    my mother sat me down and said:
  • 5:15 - 5:18
    "Look, we can no longer protect you,
    we can no longer keep you safe,
  • 5:18 - 5:20
    so you’re going to have to go."
  • 5:20 - 5:26
    So I bought a one-way ticket to London.
    I packed my suitcase, and I left.
  • 5:26 - 5:31
    My biggest heartbreak at that point
    was that nobody said anything.
  • 5:31 - 5:33
    I had a very public exit from Norway.
  • 5:33 - 5:37
    My brown people, my white people,
    nobody said anything.
  • 5:37 - 5:40
    Nobody said; "Hold on, this is wrong.
  • 5:40 - 5:44
    Support this girl, protect this girl
    because she is one of us."
  • 5:44 - 5:48
    Nobody said that. Instead I felt like,
  • 5:48 - 5:51
    you know at the airport,
    on the baggage carousel,
  • 5:51 - 5:54
    you have these different suitcases
    going round and round,
  • 5:54 - 5:56
    and there’s always
    that one suitcase left at the end.
  • 5:56 - 5:59
    The one that nobody wants.
    The one that nobody comes to claim.
  • 5:59 - 6:06
    I felt like that. I’d never felt so alone.
    I’d never felt so lost.
  • 6:06 - 6:11
    So, after coming to London,
    I did eventually resume my music career.
  • 6:11 - 6:15
    Different place, but unfortunately
    the same old story.
  • 6:15 - 6:19
    I remember a message sent to me saying
    that I was going to be killed,
  • 6:19 - 6:22
    and that rivers of blood
    were going to flow,
  • 6:22 - 6:26
    and that I was going to be raped
    many times before I died.
  • 6:26 - 6:28
    By this point
    I have to tell I was actually
  • 6:28 - 6:30
    getting used to messages like this.
  • 6:30 - 6:35
    But what became different was that now
    they started threatening my family.
  • 6:35 - 6:41
    So once again, I packed my suitcase,
    I left music, and I moved to the US.
  • 6:41 - 6:45
    I’d had enough. I didn’t want to have
    anything to do with this anymore.
  • 6:45 - 6:49
    And I was certainly not going to be killed
    for something that wasn’t even my dream,
  • 6:49 - 6:50
    it was my father’s choice.
  • 6:53 - 6:58
    So I... I kind of got lost,
    I kind of fell apart,
  • 6:58 - 7:00
    but I decided that what I wanted to do is
  • 7:00 - 7:05
    to spend the next however many years
    of my life supporting young people,
  • 7:05 - 7:09
    and to try to be there in some small way,
    whatever way that I could.
  • 7:09 - 7:14
    So I started volunteering for various
    organisations that were working
  • 7:14 - 7:18
    with young Muslims inside of Europe.
  • 7:18 - 7:24
    And, to my surprise what I found,
    was so many of these young people
  • 7:24 - 7:26
    were suffering and struggling.
  • 7:26 - 7:30
    They were facing so many problems
    with their families and their communities,
  • 7:30 - 7:34
    who seemed to care more about
    their honour and their reputation
  • 7:34 - 7:37
    than the happiness and
    the lives of their own kids.
  • 7:38 - 7:42
    I started feeling like maybe I wasn’t
    so alone, maybe I wasn’t so weird.
  • 7:42 - 7:46
    Maybe there are more
    of my people out there.
  • 7:46 - 7:48
    The thing is what most people
    don’t understand,
  • 7:48 - 7:52
    is that there are so many
    of us growing up in Europe
  • 7:52 - 7:57
    who are not free to be ourselves.
    We are not allowed to be who we are.
  • 7:57 - 8:02
    We are not free to marry,
  • 8:02 - 8:05
    or to be in relationships
    with people that we choose.
  • 8:05 - 8:07
    We can’t even pick our own career.
  • 8:07 - 8:10
    This is the norm in
    the Muslim heartlands of Europe.
  • 8:10 - 8:14
    Even in the freest societies
    in the world, we're not free.
  • 8:14 - 8:18
    Our lives, our dreams, our future,
    does not belong to us,
  • 8:18 - 8:21
    it belongs to our parents,
    and their community.
  • 8:21 - 8:28
    I found endless stories of young people,
    who are lost to all of us,
  • 8:28 - 8:30
    Who are invisible to all of us,
  • 8:30 - 8:33
    but who are suffering and
    they are suffering alone.
  • 8:34 - 8:36
    Kids that we are losing
    to forced marriages,
  • 8:36 - 8:39
    to honour based violence, and abuse.
  • 8:39 - 8:43
    So eventually I realised, after several
    years of working with these young people,
  • 8:43 - 8:46
    that I will not be able to keep running,
  • 8:46 - 8:50
    I can’t spend the rest of my life
    being scared and hiding,
  • 8:50 - 8:53
    and that I’m actually going
    to have to do something.
  • 8:54 - 8:57
    And I also realised that
    my silence, our silence,
  • 8:57 - 9:00
    allows abuse like this to continue.
  • 9:00 - 9:05
    So I decided that I wanted to put
    my childhood superpower to some use,
  • 9:05 - 9:09
    by trying to make people on
    the different sides of these issues
  • 9:09 - 9:12
    understand what
    it's like to be a young person
  • 9:12 - 9:15
    stuck between
    your family and your country.
  • 9:15 - 9:19
    So I started making films,
    and I started telling these stories.
  • 9:19 - 9:21
    And I also wanted people to understand
  • 9:21 - 9:26
    the deadly consequences of us
    not taking these problems seriously.
  • 9:27 - 9:29
    So the first film I made was about Banaz.
  • 9:30 - 9:33
    She was a 17 year old
    Kurdish girl in London.
  • 9:34 - 9:37
    She was obedient, she did
    whatever her parents wanted.
  • 9:37 - 9:40
    She tried to do everything right.
  • 9:40 - 9:42
    She married some guy
    that her parent’s chose for her,
  • 9:42 - 9:46
    even though he beat
    and raped her constantly.
  • 9:46 - 9:48
    And when she tried to go
    to her family for help they said;
  • 9:48 - 9:51
    "Well, you’ve got to go back
    and be a better wife."
  • 9:51 - 9:54
    Because they didn’t want
    a divorced daughter on their hands,
  • 9:54 - 9:57
    because of course, that would bring
    dishonor on the family.
  • 9:57 - 10:01
    She was beaten so badly
    her ears would bleed.
  • 10:01 - 10:06
    And when she finally left, and she found
    a young man that she chose,
  • 10:06 - 10:10
    and she fell in love with, the community
    and the family found out,
  • 10:10 - 10:13
    and she disappeared.
  • 10:13 - 10:16
    She was found three months later.
  • 10:16 - 10:22
    She’d been stuffed into a suitcase,
    and buried underneath a house.
  • 10:25 - 10:29
    She had been strangled,
    she had been beaten to death,
  • 10:30 - 10:35
    by three men, three cousins,
    on the orders of her father and uncle.
  • 10:35 - 10:37
    The added tragedy of Banaz’s story,
  • 10:37 - 10:43
    story is that she had gone to the police
    in England five times asking for help.
  • 10:43 - 10:46
    Telling them that she was going
    to be killed by her family.
  • 10:46 - 10:50
    The police didn’t believe her,
    so they didn’t do anything.
  • 10:50 - 10:52
    And the problem with this,
  • 10:52 - 10:55
    is that not only are so many of
    our kids facing these problems,
  • 10:55 - 10:59
    within their families and
    within their families' communities,
  • 10:59 - 11:05
    but they are also meeting
    misunderstandings and apathy
  • 11:05 - 11:09
    in the countries that they grow up in.
  • 11:09 - 11:13
    When their own families betray them,
    they look to the rest of us.
  • 11:13 - 11:18
    And when we don’t understand,
    we lose them.
  • 11:18 - 11:22
    So you know while I was making
    this film several people said to me:
  • 11:22 - 11:24
    "Well, Deeyah, you know
    this is just their culture,
  • 11:24 - 11:28
    this is just what those people do to
    their kids and we can’t really interfere."
  • 11:29 - 11:33
    I can assure you,
    being murdered is not my culture.
  • 11:33 - 11:37
    And surely people who look like me,
    young women who come
  • 11:37 - 11:41
    from backgrounds like me,
    should be subject to the same rights,
  • 11:41 - 11:45
    the same protections,
    as anybody else in our country.
  • 11:45 - 11:47
    Why not?
  • 11:47 - 11:53
    So, for my next film, I wanted
    to try and understand why
  • 11:53 - 11:57
    some of our young Muslim kids in Europe
    are drawn to extremism and violence.
  • 11:57 - 12:00
    But with that topic,
    I also recognised
  • 12:00 - 12:03
    that I was going to have
    to face my worst fear.
  • 12:04 - 12:07
    The brown men with beards.
  • 12:08 - 12:12
    Similar men, to the ones
    that hounded me for most of my life.
  • 12:13 - 12:16
    Men that I’ve been afraid of
    most of my life.
  • 12:16 - 12:21
    Men that I’ve also deeply disliked
    for many, many years.
  • 12:21 - 12:25
    So I spent the next two years
    interviewing convicted terrorists,
  • 12:25 - 12:27
    jihadis and former extremists.
  • 12:27 - 12:31
    What I already knew,
    what was very obvious already,
  • 12:31 - 12:36
    was that religion, politics,
    Europe’s colonial baggage,
  • 12:36 - 12:40
    also, you know, Western foreign
    policy failures of recent years,
  • 12:40 - 12:42
    were all a part of the picture.
  • 12:42 - 12:45
    But what I was more interested
    in finding out, was; "What are the human,
  • 12:45 - 12:49
    what are the personal reasons
    why some of our young people
  • 12:49 - 12:52
    are susceptible to groups like this."
  • 12:52 - 12:58
    And what really surprised me,
    was that I found wounded human beings.
  • 12:59 - 13:03
    Instead of the monsters that I was
    looking for, that I was hoping to find
  • 13:03 - 13:09
    quite frankly because it would have been
    very satisfying, I found broken people.
  • 13:09 - 13:14
    Just like Banaz, I found that
    these young men were torn apart
  • 13:14 - 13:18
    from trying to bridge
    the gaps between their families,
  • 13:18 - 13:21
    and the countries that they were born in.
  • 13:21 - 13:24
    And what I also learnt is that
    extremist groups, terrorist groups,
  • 13:24 - 13:28
    are taking advantage of
    these feelings of our young people,
  • 13:28 - 13:32
    and channeling that cynically,
    channeling that towards violence.
  • 13:32 - 13:34
    "Come to us!", they say.
  • 13:34 - 13:38
    "Reject both sides, your family and
    your country, because they reject you.
  • 13:38 - 13:41
    For your family, their honour
    is more important than you,
  • 13:41 - 13:45
    and for your country, a real Norwegian,
    Brit or a French person
  • 13:45 - 13:49
    will always be white and never you."
  • 13:49 - 13:53
    They are also promising our young people
    the things that they crave,
  • 13:53 - 13:57
    significance, heroism, a sense of
    belonging and purpose.
  • 13:57 - 14:04
    A community that loves and accepts them.
    They make the powerless feel powerful.
  • 14:04 - 14:09
    The invisible and the silent
    are finally seen and heard.
  • 14:11 - 14:14
    This is what they are doing
    for our young people.
  • 14:14 - 14:18
    Why are these groups doing this
    for our young people and not us?
  • 14:20 - 14:29
    The thing is, I’m not trying to
    justify or excuse any of the violence.
  • 14:29 - 14:32
    What I am trying to say,
    is that we have to understand
  • 14:32 - 14:36
    why some of our young people
    are attracted to this.
  • 14:37 - 14:39
    I would like
    to also show you, actually,
  • 14:39 - 14:44
    these are childhood photos
    of some of the guys in the film.
  • 14:45 - 14:48
    What really struck me is
    that so many of them
  • 14:49 - 14:51
    -- I never would have thought this --
  • 14:51 - 14:55
    but so many of them have
    absent of abusive fathers.
  • 14:55 - 14:57
    And several of these young guys ended up
  • 14:57 - 15:03
    finding caring and compassionate father
    figures within these extremist groups.
  • 15:05 - 15:08
    I also found men brutalized
    by racist violence,
  • 15:08 - 15:12
    but who found a way to stop feeling like
    victims by becoming violent themselves.
  • 15:12 - 15:18
    In fact, I found something
    to my horror that I recognised.
  • 15:18 - 15:25
    I found the same feelings that I felt
    as a 17 year old, as I fled from Norway.
  • 15:25 - 15:32
    The same confusion, the same sorrow,
    the same feeling of being betrayed.
  • 15:34 - 15:38
    And not belonging to anyone.
  • 15:38 - 15:43
    The same feeling of being lost
    and torn between cultures.
  • 15:43 - 15:45
    Having said that,
    I did not choose destruction,
  • 15:45 - 15:48
    I chose to pick up a camera,
    instead of a gun.
  • 15:48 - 15:51
    And the reason I did that,
    is because of my superpower,
  • 15:51 - 15:56
    I could see that understanding
    is the answer, instead of violence.
  • 15:56 - 16:00
    Seeing human beings,
    with all their virtues,
  • 16:00 - 16:02
    and all their flaws,
  • 16:02 - 16:06
    instead of continuing the caricatures
    of us and them, the villains and victims.
  • 16:06 - 16:10
    I had also finally come to terms
    with the fact that my two cultures
  • 16:10 - 16:12
    didn’t have to be on a collision course,
  • 16:12 - 16:16
    but instead became a space
    where I found my own voice.
  • 16:16 - 16:18
    I stopped feeling
    like I had to pick a side.
  • 16:18 - 16:21
    But this took me many, many years.
  • 16:21 - 16:23
    There are so many
    of our young people today
  • 16:23 - 16:29
    who are struggling with these same issues,
    and they are struggling with this alone.
  • 16:29 - 16:32
    And this leaves them open like wounds.
  • 16:33 - 16:35
    And for some, the world view
    of radical Islam
  • 16:35 - 16:40
    becomes the infection that festers
    in these open wounds.
  • 16:41 - 16:44
    There’s an African proverb that says;
  • 16:46 - 16:49
    "If the young are not
    initiated into the village,
  • 16:49 - 16:53
    they will burn it down
    just to feel its warmth."
  • 16:53 - 16:58
    I would like to ask to Muslim parents
    and Muslim communities,
  • 16:58 - 17:01
    will you love and care for your children,
  • 17:01 - 17:03
    without forcing them
    to meet your expectations?
  • 17:03 - 17:06
    Can you choose them
    instead of your honour?
  • 17:06 - 17:09
    Can you understand why
    they’re so angry and alienated,
  • 17:09 - 17:12
    when you put your honour
    before their happiness?
  • 17:12 - 17:17
    Can you try to be a friend to your child
    so that they can trust you,
  • 17:17 - 17:19
    and want to share with you
    their experiences,
  • 17:19 - 17:22
    rather than having to seek it
    somewhere else?
  • 17:22 - 17:26
    And to our young people,
    tempted by extremism,
  • 17:26 - 17:31
    can you acknowledge that
    your rage is fuelled by pain?
  • 17:32 - 17:35
    Will you find the strength to resist
    those cynical old men,
  • 17:35 - 17:38
    who want to use your blood
    for their own profits?
  • 17:38 - 17:42
    Can you find a way to live?
  • 17:42 - 17:46
    Can you see that the sweetest revenge
    is for you to live a happy,
  • 17:46 - 17:50
    full and free life, a life defined
    by you and nobody else?
  • 17:50 - 17:55
    Why do you want to become
    just another dead Muslim kid?
  • 17:55 - 18:00
    And for the rest of us, when will we
    start listening to our young people?
  • 18:00 - 18:03
    How can we support them
    in redirecting their pain
  • 18:03 - 18:06
    into something more constructive?
  • 18:06 - 18:11
    They think we don’t like them, they think
    we don’t care what happens to them.
  • 18:11 - 18:13
    They think we don’t accept them.
  • 18:13 - 18:16
    Can we find a way to
    make them feel differently?
  • 18:16 - 18:20
    What will it take for us
    to see them, and notice them,
  • 18:20 - 18:25
    before they become either the victims
    or the perpetrators of violence?
  • 18:25 - 18:28
    Can we make ourselves care about them,
    and consider them to be our own,
  • 18:28 - 18:34
    and not just be outraged when the victims
    of violence look like ourselves?
  • 18:34 - 18:39
    Can we find a way to reject hatred,
    and heal the divisions between us?
  • 18:39 - 18:43
    The thing, is we cannot afford
    to give up on each other, or on our kids,
  • 18:43 - 18:47
    even if they’ve given up on us.
    We are all in this together.
  • 18:47 - 18:53
    And in the long term, revenge and violence
    will not work against extremists.
  • 18:53 - 18:57
    Terrorists want us to huddle
    in our houses and fear,
  • 18:57 - 18:59
    closing our doors and our hearts.
  • 18:59 - 19:03
    They want us to tear open
    more wounds in our societies,
  • 19:03 - 19:07
    so that they can use them
    to spread their infection more widely.
  • 19:07 - 19:13
    They want us to become like them,
    intolerant, hateful and cruel.
  • 19:14 - 19:21
    The day after the Paris attacks, a friend
    of mine sent this photo of her daughter.
  • 19:21 - 19:25
    This is a white girl and an Arab girl.
    They’re best friends.
  • 19:25 - 19:29
    This image is the kryptonite
    for extremists.
  • 19:30 - 19:34
    These two little girls,
    with their superpowers,
  • 19:34 - 19:40
    are showing the way forward towards
    a society that we need to build together.
  • 19:40 - 19:48
    A society that includes, and supports,
    rather than rejects our kids.
  • 19:48 - 19:49
    Thank you for listening.
  • 19:49 - 19:52
    (Applause)
Title:
What we don’t know about Europe’s Muslim kids and why we should care | Deeyah Khan | TEDxExeter
Description:

Aged 17, Deeyah fled from Norway confused, lost and torn between cultures. Unlike some young Muslims she picked up a camera instead of a gun. She now uses her camera (and her superpower) to shed light on the clash of cultures between Muslim parents who prioritise honour and their children's desire for freedom. She argues that we need to understand what is happening to fight the pull to extremism.

--
At TEDxExeter 2016 our speakers encapsulated the idea of movement, that grappling with humanity’s toughest questions requires first a vision, a dream, and then action.

Video Production Chromatrope (http://chromatrope.co.uk/)
Production Manager Andy Robertson (http://www.youtube.com/familygamertv)

Deeyah Khan is a critically acclaimed music producer and Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director. Her work highlights human rights, women's voices and freedom of expression. Her skill as a multidisciplinary artist led her to film and music as the language for her social activism. Born in Norway to immigrant parents of Pashtun and Punjabi ancestry, the experience of living between different cultures, both the challenges and the beauty, dominates her artistic vision.

Her 2012 multi-award winning documentary Banaz: A Love Story chronicles the life and death of Banaz Mahmod. Her second film the Bafta-nominated Jihad involved two years of interviews and filming with Islamic extremists, convicted terrorists and former jihadis.

Deeyah is the founder of social purpose arts and media production company, Fuuse which works to create intercultural dialogue and understanding by confronting the most complex and controversial topics, and sharing alternative views and excluded voices.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
19:58

English subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions