I've been a follower of Yasmine on Twitter for a while now. If you’ve enjoyed other memoirs like Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Infidel”, Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes”, or Ta Nehisi Coates’ “Between The World & Me”, “Unveiled” is for you.
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When she finally breaks free then- of Islam, of fundamentalism, of her terrible mother- you breathe this huge sigh of relief as if it’s your life. As cliche as this statement is, you really do feel as if you are there, as her, experiencing everything. What I love about this book, and particularly the audio version, is how the reader feels the emotions along with Yasmine. This woman was a criminal, and she escaped justice. As if Yasmine's childhood was not traumatizing enough, her mother exerts such a strong psychological control over her in early adulthood that she’s forced to marry an Al-Qaeda fighter (who the mother was also trying to have an affair with). I won’t lie, I haven’t so thoroughly despised a character in nonfiction more than Yasmine’s mother since Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List. Her abuse, a court decided, was a “cultural issue”. Even more angering is the impotent response Yasmine received from the Canadian justice system when she first tried to escape. Mindlessly carrying out her tasks and accepting- with glee- her “role” in Islam where she did not have to think or worry about life’s big questions, and her brother was unstable. Her mother had readily traded any maternal instinct she may have had for religious zealotry, and was complicit in the abuse Yasmine received by her uncle and (later) her jihadist husband. I put family in quotations because- as Yasmine herself states- she never had a true family as a child. Yasmine begins her story describing the cruel and unbearable treatment she endured as a child in a strict fundamentalist Muslim “family”. ***May Contain Spoilers*** Every human rights advocate, humanist, and progressive should read “Unveiled”, and it is telling that mainstream media does not elevate this book and praise its author from the rooftops (contrast the silence around Yasmine with the glowing reception of Megan Phelps Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church). Without telling anyone what to believe, Unveiled navigates the rhetoric and guides truth-seekers through media narratives, political correctness, and outright lies while encouraging listeners to come to their own conclusions.īest Ex-Muslim Memoir Since Hirsi Ali’s “Infidel” It's all but impossible for bystanders to get a straight answer. Is FGM Islamic or cultural? Is the hijab forced or a choice? Is ISIS a representation of "true" Islam or a radical corruption? And why is there so much conflicting information? Like most insular communities, the Islamic world has both an "outside voice" and an "inside voice". As a college educator for over 15 years, Yasmine's goal is to unveil the truth.
Part Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, part The Handmaid's Tale, Yasmine's memoir takes listeners into a world few Westerners are privy to. With one foot in each world, Yasmine is far enough removed from both to see them objectively, yet close enough to see them honestly. And even though she attended Islamic schools and wore the hijab since age nine, Yasmine never fit in with her Muslim family, either. Despite being a first-generation Canadian, she never felt at home in the West. In Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam, Yasmine speaks her truth as a woman born in the Western world yet raised in a fundamentalist Islamic home. Canadian human rights activist Yasmine Mohammed believes both sides are dangerously wrong. One camp praises "the religion of peace", while the other claims all Muslims are terrorists. Yet, public debate about the faith is polarized. Since September 11, 2001, the Western world has been preoccupied with Islam and its role in terrorism. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel meets The Handmaid's Tale.
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