As an Iraqi myself I was horrified and deeply saddened by the continued movement towards radical Islam, ushered in by the large Shia control and influence, courtesy of Iran in Iraq. This was not how my family grew up and the values of our homeland. The women in my family were educated, dressed how they wanted, worked in every sector. Also, Saddam was secular and one of his main goals when he came to power was the push for literacy and education for women. This is all a result of the devastating and unjust invasion and occupation by the US. The entire region has been destabilized and people’s lives have been destroyed and it’s all due to the failed foreign policies of the West. Countries like Iraq and Syria kept Iran in check, they were actual stabilizers of the region. Now look at Iraq, crumbling infrastructure, contaminated soil and water from the depleted uranium used in the weapons, women and girls have no rights and are invincible in public sphere, discrimination and violence against minorities, a populous that is being educated in propaganda. Now we have government sanctioned pedophilia, absolutely horrifying. I also grew up Chaldean, the Christian minority in Iraq, we lived a good life and now in countries all over the Middle East, Christians are being targeted with violence and discrimination, in an attempt to push us out of our homelands and erase our history. Bari, get in touch if you’d ever like to hear my story.
This is written in fairly good English for an Iraqi, suggesting you’re living in the West yourself. If that is not true about you, it is irrelevant since so many other Iraqis and citizens of the broader Arab world sell their mothers for such low prices to emigrate to the West. It might be worthwhile for you to consider the possibility that what’s wrong in Iraq isn’t due to Iran. Nor is it due to the US, where Iraqis prefer to live. But that it actually has to do with Iraqis and their culture, themselves.
Iraq wasn’t some glorious kingdom before the US invasion. It was just another failed Arab state, like all of the other ones, struggling under the centuries of stagnation ushered in by the turn to Islamic fundamentalism before the Mongols invaded. That was in the 1200s. Scientific research was abandoned. Secular education was abandoned. To the point, today, where tiny Israel is able to match the combined output of hundreds of millions of their neighbors on a broad array of metrics of civilization.
They have remained experts though, as you ably demonstrate, at blaming others for every misfortune that has ever befallen them. Even as they climb all over each other to move to those countries that they blame - which is particularly galling, given that people who are “oppressed” don’t move in with their oppressors.
It’s too bad that Iraqis, and Middle Easterners around the world, are incapable of looking in the mirror. You’d be able to solve so many more problems in your countries if you had any willingness to correctly identify them. And especially if you had any ability to learn from the countries and cultures that you all move to since you weren’t able to build a particularly resilient culture of your own.
The Iraqi war was wrong in so many ways, but mostly because it opened up avenues for female brutalization. It made neighboring countries bolder in suppressing rights for all people especially women. March 19, 2003, was a black day in American history - our government had the wrong objective. Our enemy, Bin Laden and his cohorts, were not in Iraq. I'm so sorry for what happened there.
It. Is so sad to know that until men can stand up to. The patriarchy, women are fighting uphill, backwards, in high heels and one hand tied behind her back!
You are very brave, and I pray for your continued safety and peace.
This is why we talk about gender violence. This truth is why we must not lose our focus on protecting girls and women around the world. We in the U.S. are being redirected by a small group of young people to pretend that middle class queer people are really the ones who need protection. They do to a degree, but they can’t take the whole spotlight. This is gender inequality.
My dear Muslim refugee friend left her abusive husband as soon as she could, and I am so proud of her. We must support culturally sensitive shelters that provide them with safety, familiar foods and rituals. That helps them regain strength and confidence. Find one locally and send $100.
Beautifully written - and this is worth pointing out: one reason Christianity flourished in the first few centuries was the unorthodox practice of protecting women, widows, orphans and babies.
Is it right to protect the vulnerable? Why? How do you know? Cultural relativism will always create a logical fallacy problem.
If there is no fundamental truth, then of course mutilating your daughter's genitals (so she will never be able to have an orgasm) and marrying her off at nine years old is just - normal. Who are you to judge? Isn't it the same as allowing your daughter to cut off her healthy breasts, or your son his functional penis, for the cultural affirmation rites of the new progressive left?
Yasmine - this is both, very inspirational and heart rendering sadness at the same time. The inability not to reject 6 century death cult, by our betters infuriates me.
Yasmine, you founded Free Hearts Free Minds to help people escaping Islamic repression, like you did. We need to amplify you and the people you help at FHFM by 1000000000x!
The West is not standing up for Western values. We do not allow children to be married. We do not allow children to be hung up by their ankles. We do not. It is inconsequential what Muslim countries might do. Let their adherents return to the Mideast. In Canada, in America, in Europe, women should all be treated with respect. The law applies to everyone. Period. As Kerry Malloy so frankly puts it, immigrants to our shores must choose. Or return home. Period.
I want to be frank here, it is not cultural differences as much as a religious difference. Islam believes in a God and through the prophet Mohammed that women are their slaves, mere property. If Muslim women will not admit that, the teachings of their faith will never allow them to be free and we in western culture cannot save them. And their men, who pray five times a day for the death of Israel and America (the true translation of their Arabic prayers) cannot assimilate to western values. Both have to decide.
Brave and necessary article, the Muslim men regard women as less than animals, it's incomprehensible (don't they have mother's???) but it is the reality
Inspirational person, Yasmine Mohammed, I commend your unworldly fortitude. Your daughter is a lucky girl. We will persist. The truth will make us free.
This is why we must not abandon the ideal of individual rights for group- or identity-based rights. Do Muslim rights trump women’s rights for Muslim women? Or gay men? Are the rights of people based on their race to supersede the rights of religious minorities, or vice versa? It’s all pernicious. Each citizen must have equal rights under the law *as an individual* regardless of what culture or family or body they happen to be born into.
Thank you Yasmine--for this excellent essay. I read your book and I appreciated it. However, I think what some people might say about your childhood is that your mother was "kinda nuts" and was simply a narcissist. Consequently, because of her abusive behaviors it obscures some of the truth of the problems that Islam created in your life and in the lives of many others.
Why does radical Islam hate women so much? Are they afraid of us?
As an Iraqi myself I was horrified and deeply saddened by the continued movement towards radical Islam, ushered in by the large Shia control and influence, courtesy of Iran in Iraq. This was not how my family grew up and the values of our homeland. The women in my family were educated, dressed how they wanted, worked in every sector. Also, Saddam was secular and one of his main goals when he came to power was the push for literacy and education for women. This is all a result of the devastating and unjust invasion and occupation by the US. The entire region has been destabilized and people’s lives have been destroyed and it’s all due to the failed foreign policies of the West. Countries like Iraq and Syria kept Iran in check, they were actual stabilizers of the region. Now look at Iraq, crumbling infrastructure, contaminated soil and water from the depleted uranium used in the weapons, women and girls have no rights and are invincible in public sphere, discrimination and violence against minorities, a populous that is being educated in propaganda. Now we have government sanctioned pedophilia, absolutely horrifying. I also grew up Chaldean, the Christian minority in Iraq, we lived a good life and now in countries all over the Middle East, Christians are being targeted with violence and discrimination, in an attempt to push us out of our homelands and erase our history. Bari, get in touch if you’d ever like to hear my story.
This is written in fairly good English for an Iraqi, suggesting you’re living in the West yourself. If that is not true about you, it is irrelevant since so many other Iraqis and citizens of the broader Arab world sell their mothers for such low prices to emigrate to the West. It might be worthwhile for you to consider the possibility that what’s wrong in Iraq isn’t due to Iran. Nor is it due to the US, where Iraqis prefer to live. But that it actually has to do with Iraqis and their culture, themselves.
Iraq wasn’t some glorious kingdom before the US invasion. It was just another failed Arab state, like all of the other ones, struggling under the centuries of stagnation ushered in by the turn to Islamic fundamentalism before the Mongols invaded. That was in the 1200s. Scientific research was abandoned. Secular education was abandoned. To the point, today, where tiny Israel is able to match the combined output of hundreds of millions of their neighbors on a broad array of metrics of civilization.
They have remained experts though, as you ably demonstrate, at blaming others for every misfortune that has ever befallen them. Even as they climb all over each other to move to those countries that they blame - which is particularly galling, given that people who are “oppressed” don’t move in with their oppressors.
It’s too bad that Iraqis, and Middle Easterners around the world, are incapable of looking in the mirror. You’d be able to solve so many more problems in your countries if you had any willingness to correctly identify them. And especially if you had any ability to learn from the countries and cultures that you all move to since you weren’t able to build a particularly resilient culture of your own.
The Iraqi war was wrong in so many ways, but mostly because it opened up avenues for female brutalization. It made neighboring countries bolder in suppressing rights for all people especially women. March 19, 2003, was a black day in American history - our government had the wrong objective. Our enemy, Bin Laden and his cohorts, were not in Iraq. I'm so sorry for what happened there.
I’m horrified at what you went through.
It. Is so sad to know that until men can stand up to. The patriarchy, women are fighting uphill, backwards, in high heels and one hand tied behind her back!
You are very brave, and I pray for your continued safety and peace.
This is why we talk about gender violence. This truth is why we must not lose our focus on protecting girls and women around the world. We in the U.S. are being redirected by a small group of young people to pretend that middle class queer people are really the ones who need protection. They do to a degree, but they can’t take the whole spotlight. This is gender inequality.
My dear Muslim refugee friend left her abusive husband as soon as she could, and I am so proud of her. We must support culturally sensitive shelters that provide them with safety, familiar foods and rituals. That helps them regain strength and confidence. Find one locally and send $100.
Beautifully written - and this is worth pointing out: one reason Christianity flourished in the first few centuries was the unorthodox practice of protecting women, widows, orphans and babies.
https://www.breakpoint.org/the-early-churchs-protection-of-women-and-children/
Is it right to protect the vulnerable? Why? How do you know? Cultural relativism will always create a logical fallacy problem.
If there is no fundamental truth, then of course mutilating your daughter's genitals (so she will never be able to have an orgasm) and marrying her off at nine years old is just - normal. Who are you to judge? Isn't it the same as allowing your daughter to cut off her healthy breasts, or your son his functional penis, for the cultural affirmation rites of the new progressive left?
In Iran, there were riots when the Shah raised the age of consent from 13 to 15.
Also, if you want to change any of this, you are going to require a lot of those toxic masculinity guys who you have been demonizing for decades.
Yasmine - this is both, very inspirational and heart rendering sadness at the same time. The inability not to reject 6 century death cult, by our betters infuriates me.
Yasmine, you founded Free Hearts Free Minds to help people escaping Islamic repression, like you did. We need to amplify you and the people you help at FHFM by 1000000000x!
The West is not standing up for Western values. We do not allow children to be married. We do not allow children to be hung up by their ankles. We do not. It is inconsequential what Muslim countries might do. Let their adherents return to the Mideast. In Canada, in America, in Europe, women should all be treated with respect. The law applies to everyone. Period. As Kerry Malloy so frankly puts it, immigrants to our shores must choose. Or return home. Period.
I want to be frank here, it is not cultural differences as much as a religious difference. Islam believes in a God and through the prophet Mohammed that women are their slaves, mere property. If Muslim women will not admit that, the teachings of their faith will never allow them to be free and we in western culture cannot save them. And their men, who pray five times a day for the death of Israel and America (the true translation of their Arabic prayers) cannot assimilate to western values. Both have to decide.
Brave and necessary article, the Muslim men regard women as less than animals, it's incomprehensible (don't they have mother's???) but it is the reality
Thank you, Yasmine, for bravely living and sharing your story. And for fighting for the rights of truly oppressed girls and women.
Lovely woman. This article is enlightening.
Inspirational person, Yasmine Mohammed, I commend your unworldly fortitude. Your daughter is a lucky girl. We will persist. The truth will make us free.
This is why we must not abandon the ideal of individual rights for group- or identity-based rights. Do Muslim rights trump women’s rights for Muslim women? Or gay men? Are the rights of people based on their race to supersede the rights of religious minorities, or vice versa? It’s all pernicious. Each citizen must have equal rights under the law *as an individual* regardless of what culture or family or body they happen to be born into.
Thank you Yasmine--for this excellent essay. I read your book and I appreciated it. However, I think what some people might say about your childhood is that your mother was "kinda nuts" and was simply a narcissist. Consequently, because of her abusive behaviors it obscures some of the truth of the problems that Islam created in your life and in the lives of many others.