 I've been meaning to do a review of this book for some time and sadly it's taking me a little bit of time to get around to it but I do I do definitely want to cover it and I highly recommend it and I will link below to information about the book and about the author and that the book is unveiled by Yasmin Muhammad. Now Yasmin is someone I have a great deal of admiration for and whilst I've not met her in person we have chatted online on several occasions and I have done a podcast with her I don't quite a few years ago I've got it it's been a long journey so Yasmin if you're watching this I hope you're doing well congratulations on the book fantastic fantastic read and in review of the book just a few things three particular points that that jump to mind first of all is it's a very personal story from Yasmin she's telling her own story and sadly it's not an unfamiliar story it's a story of horrific abuse and the horrific abuse that a lot of women suffer in Islamic communities including Islamic communities in the west because Yasmin comes from an Egyptian background but is Canadian and is an activist in Canada the cruelty that she was subjected to is quite extraordinary and much of it was what the hands of her mother and this raises a very interesting topic and it's one that comes up quite frequently and that is that the perpetuation of cruelty in the Islamic world is often at the hands of the mother to the daughter for example FGM will often be almost always carried out by women it's the mother will favor her sons over her daughters and treat the daughters appallingly treat her daughter in law appallingly and it's absolutely true to say this the perpetuation of cruelty to women is carried down not exclusively obviously I mean we have domestic violence male violence against women is the norm in Islamic society it's not exclusively but this horrific treatment from mother to daughter mother and law to daughter in law is not unheard of certainly not so whilst I'm no psychiatrist let me just give a little my view on why this is I've said many times that men who grow up in the Muslim world grow up believing that women are nothing essentially that we are less than animals subhuman is an understatement we can be kicked around pushed around we have no intelligence no no value other than our ability to give birth that's it men are raised to see women in this way but here's the thing so are women women are also raised to see themselves in this way and there is little as potent or destructive in this life as self-hatred it is probably the most harmful destructive kind of hatred and women are from birth instilled with absolute with with self-contempt that is almost indescribable and it is all backed up by the Quran let's not forget and to say that the Quran is well held in high regard is also something of an understatement so when the Quran tells girls that they are worthless they believe it and that self-hatred grows and manifests often not always but sometimes in mistreatment of others and particularly mistreatment of others of your own sex and also there's an element of trying to seize a bit of power if a woman goes along with the misogyny and mistreats other women she may gain back just that little bit of power by going along rather than rebelling against the system she accepts it she sends it onwards in order to legitimize it she was treated appallingly therefore others will be treated appallingly it's a horrible aspect of humanity but it is an aspect of humanity and it starts from self-hatred and the self-hatred that girls are taught from birth from the Quran that's my opinion on it anyway finally an aspect of this book which really stands out for me is well it's two parts of this I guess one is the disappointment that Yasmin expresses throughout and I've seen her express on Twitter and elsewhere for a long long time the disappointment at the West and our absolute failure to stand by what we say we believe our laws say we believe in gender equality our laws say that you know a man should never beat up his wife and vice versa but men are bigger let's you know let's be serious about it you know our laws say one thing but then we behave a completely different way when people of another ethnicity or another skin color or another background are in our countries we have effectively left Muslim women that Muslim women like Yasmin who's obviously now an ex-Muslim Muslim women like Yasmin to fight on their own you know when she's fighting against this in Canada she's not getting the support of Canadian feminists she's not getting the support of Western feminists and you don't have to be a feminist either to know that the treatment of women in Islam is horrific and wrong but she's not getting any of that support in fact what's happening is that all the support is going to the imams and the mullers and all the people she is fighting against they're the ones being treated as victims and they're the ones getting our support we have completely betrayed her and others like her and not just women either apostates gay people whoever it may be who is suffering inside the Muslim communities inside the West we have turned our backs on them while saying we believe in human rights and racial equality etc a complete and total betrayal very final point is how much how open and honest Yasmin is about the hate directed now the direction of hate we're always told aren't we that it's the white Westerner whose hatred of non-whites is the cause of all this actually we all know that that's simply not true of course there are white people who are nasty as in anywhere else but we know that it isn't white people are not overwhelmingly hateful towards non-white people that is a disgraceful position in fact the opposite is true and Yasmin talks about the fact that it is the hatred coming from the Muslim side towards the non-Muslim for the white majority for example but not exclusively the white majority the hatred is in fact in this direction and not in this direction and I would swear by that because I've seen it throughout the years it isn't white people's hatred of Muslims that's the problem it's Muslims hatred of white people that is the truth of it and it's a much bigger problem than vice versa fascinating book once again Yasmin congratulations it was heart-wrenching to read your story I'm glad that you're happy now and that you are settled and I hope that you the rest of your life is as happy as you deserve it to be well done on getting through what must have been just unimaginably horrific Yasmin if you fancy hooking up for another podcast another chat do give me a shout everyone else read this book it is it's an eye opener it's a heart-wrencher but it will affect you