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Aliyah Saleem

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Aliyah Saleem
Aliyah Saleem speaking at theCouncil of Ex-Muslims of Britain'sSecular Conference2015.
BornAugust 1989
London,United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma materBrunel University
OccupationResearcher
Known forEx-Muslim advocacy,secularism
Notable workLeaving Faith Behind
Websitealiyahsaleem.wordpress.com

Aaliyah Saleem(born August 1989), is a Britishsecular educationcampaigner, writer and market researcher. She is anex-Muslimatheist,feministandhumanistactivist, and co-founder of advocacy groupFaith to Faithless.She has also written under the pseudonym ofLaylah Hussain.[1][2][3]

Biography

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Saleem was born inLondoninto aPakistaniSunniMuslimimmigrant family in August 1989. From age 6 to 11 she attendedDeobandiArabic-ledmadrasas,[4][5]where she learnt theArabic language.[6]: 0:35 When she was 11 years old,[7]Saleem entered the Islamic girls'privateboarding schoolJamia Al-HudaainNottingham.Around 12, she began having doubts about the truth and ethics of religion, especially thecondemnation of homosexuality,but her questioning was branded "corruption" and she felt repeatedly repressed to "not pollute the minds of other girls".[6]: 1:07 She was expelled in 2006 at the age of 15, accused of "narcissism"for owning adisposable cameraand consequentlypublicly humiliatedin front of the entire school.[2][3]

She went on to studyKoranic interpretationatFarhat Hashmi'sAl-Huda InstituteinMississauganearToronto,Canada,which was intended to last a year.[8]Finding the lessons inUrdudifficult, however, after two months[6]: 3:31 she transferred to the Al-Huda Institute's campus in Pakistan to complete the course and, segregated and isolated from her family, she found herself "sucked in" by the repetition and religious zeal.[8]She started to willingly wear the face veil (niqab),[6]: 3:45 and in hindsight she considered her 17-year-old self to be a fundamentalist[8]who wanted toproselytisewhen she returned to the UK.[9]: 2:02 

Back in Britain, where Saleem was no longer in a religiously restricted environment and had free access to books, media and television, her earlier doubts resurfaced. She started studyingsociology,which examined religion from several new perspectives such asfeminismandMarxism,and first exposed her to the concept that religions could serve as a means ofsocial control.In the library, she came acrossRichard Dawkins' bookThe God Delusion,which first exposed her to the idea thatGodcould be a humandelusionandmight not actually exist,[5]and thetheory of evolution,which she did not understand, and decided to spend a great deal of time on studying further. After that, she educated herself oncosmology,and readCarl Sagan'sPale Blue Dot;the sight of the iconicPale Blue Dotphotograph was the last straw, brought her to disbelief and made her asceptic.[10]By the age of 19, Saleem had reached a point where she no longer believed in Islam, and moved away from it.[11]: 2:23 She believes that "The Islam that I grew up in, that had been, you know, shoved down my throat for years, was actually being shoved down my throat to actually control me. To control what I did, what I wore, who I spoke to, and what I ate and how I thought."[11]: 2:35 

Saleem attendedBrunel Universityin west London where she obtained afirst class honours degreein English.[12]She is amarket researcherforKantar Grouphaving previously done parliamentary research work for theHouse of Lords.[13]She is also a contributor andadvice columnisttoSedaa,a website featuring writers from Muslim backgrounds.[14]

Secular activism

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Saleem speaking out abouther Islamic schoolin October 2014.

In October 2014, Saleem first spoke out about her treatment at her Nottingham boarding school at theCouncil of Ex-Muslims of Britain'sSecular Conference2014.[15]In November 2014, she also wrote a more detailed exposé about it inThe Timesunder the pseudonym of Laylah Hussain.[12]Saleem claimed that pupils were only taught various Islamic subjects from a fundamentalist perspective, indoctrinated them with anti-gay, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish views, and had no geography, history, art, sport or music classes.[3][7]The science class omittedevolutionandsex education,and she was taught thatmen are permitted to beat their wives.[12]Due to the concerns she raised, the school was subjected to an unannounced inspection in April 2015, and rated as 'inadequate' byOfstedas a result.[16]When a second inspection in April 2016 did not show sufficient improvements, Jamia Al-Hudaa Residential College was threatened with partial or full closure. The school's management attempted to appeal the decision, while Saleem urged theDepartment for Educationto "move swiftly now to protect these pupils."[16]

Maryam Namazieinterviews Aliyah Saleem about her Islamic school.

In 2015 Saleem, with her colleague Imtiaz Shams, an ex-Muslim atheist from Saudi Arabia, co-founded the advocacy groupFaith to Faithless.[17]The organisation provides support for people leavingIslamand otherminority religions,challenges discrimination faced bynon-religiouspeople and aims to create awareness of the issues involved in leaving religion.[18]Saleem and Shams began by holding "coming out"events at universities, where ex-Muslims and otherapostatescould tell their stories in the presence of peers who had also been through deconversion.[11]: 2:05 

In 2015 Saleem representedHumanists UK(then the British Humanist Association) at a diversity chamber debate in the House of Lords in which she spoke about the discrimination and persecution faced by many ex-Muslim atheists in the UK and around the world.[19][20]The following year she represented Faith to Faithless at a further debate in the Lords about the particular problems ex-Muslims face when leaving religion.[21]

In late 2015 and early 2016, Saleem recorded two videos offering strategies for Muslim or ex-Muslim women who no longer want to wear thehijab– she herself had worn a headscarf from the age of 11[22]– but are wary of the negative social consequences they may face for doing so.[23][24]

In April 2016 Saleem appeared in theBBC Radio 4two-part documentary programme about theDeobandis,the isolationist traditional Muslim community that was responsible for her schooling and which controls the majority ofIslamic religious schoolsin the UK.[4]

Works

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  • Saleem, Aliyah; Mughal, Fiyaz (2018).Leaving Faith Behind: The journeys and perspectives of people who have chosen to leave Islam.London: Darton, Longman & Todd. p. 192.ISBN978-0232533644.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Turner, Janice."No more faith schools, the prisons of the mind".The Times.Retrieved13 March2018.
  2. ^abRosemary Bennett (7 June 2017)."Jamia al-Hudaa: Islamic boarding school passes Ofsted inspection at last".The Times.Retrieved10 March2018.
  3. ^abcPells, Rachel (14 October 2016)."Islamist girls' school that taught pupils gay people should be killed and men could beat their wives forced to close".The Independent.Archivedfrom the original on 17 October 2016.Retrieved10 March2018.
  4. ^abBennett-Jones, Owen."The Deobandis".BBC Radio 4.Retrieved12 March2018.: 24:50 
  5. ^abKelly, Jane."Why do Muslims have a thing about Guy Fawkes?".The Salisbury Review.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  6. ^abcdReza Moradi; et al. (11 November 2014)."Activist Aliyah Saleem -" My Experience at an Islamic Boarding School in Britain "".International Conference on the Religious-Right, Secularism and Civil Rights.Bread and Roses TV.Retrieved12 March2018.
  7. ^abLaylah Hussain (22 November 2014)."Life inside an Islamic boarding school".The Sunday Times.Retrieved11 March2018.
  8. ^abcAliyah Saleem (14 December 2015)."Aliyah Saleem's life at the Islamic women's institute".The Times.Retrieved10 March2018.
  9. ^Aliyah Saleem (12 February 2015)."1. Hijab, Schooling & the Universe".YouTube.Faith to Faithless.Retrieved12 March2018.
  10. ^Saleem, Aliyah (6 March 2016)."Science and the road to reason: an ex-Muslim's journeyScience and the road to reason: an ex-Muslim's journey".Double Bind Magazine.Double Bind. Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved13 March2018.
  11. ^abc"Ex-Muslims share their experiences".Daily Watch.The Economist. 22 December 2016.Retrieved11 March2018.
  12. ^abcJanice Turner(12 October 2016)."The pupil who brought down her school".The Times.Retrieved11 March2018.
  13. ^"Register of Interests of Lords Members' Staff".Parliament UK.Retrieved12 March2018.
  14. ^"Sedaa: Our voices".Sedaa.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  15. ^Aliyah Saleem (7 September 2015)."Jamia Al-Hudaa Residential College graded as inadequate by Ofsted".Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  16. ^ab"Under-fire Nottingham Islamic girls' school appeals pupil ruling".BBC News.21 October 2016.Retrieved12 March2018.
  17. ^Meyer, Elisa (26 November 2016)."How one woman left Islam to campaign for atheism".World Religion News.Retrieved11 March2018.
  18. ^"BHA announces Faith to Faithless integration and new support services for 'apostates'".Humanists UK.Retrieved11 March2018.
  19. ^"Young humanists debate diversity in the House of Lords".Humanists UK.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  20. ^"Lords Chamber Event Friday 4 December 2015".Parliament Live.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  21. ^Lord Soley."The power of ideas".Politics Home.Dods. Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  22. ^Henley, Lucy."Into The Unknown".Vogue.Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved12 March2018.
  23. ^Helen Rumbelow (20 November 2017)."Why we chose to take off our headscarves".The Times.Retrieved11 March2018.
  24. ^"Ready to remove your hijab?".Humanistisch Verbond.14 July 2016. Archived fromthe originalon 13 March 2018.Retrieved11 March2018.
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