This podcast is an opportunity for you to join me in conversation with inspirational people from restrictive religious backgrounds who have fought and who have overcome. You know some names already: you know Malala Yousufzai, you know Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But there are countless others who have survived insurmountable odds, overcoming the most vicious of obstacles, and whose names you will not recognize. They are the unsung heroes. The warriors hidden in the shadows. Come meet them on the Yasmine Mohammed Podcast.
Enas was forcibly taken to Gaza to be married off to a family member chosen by her father. She joins us in this episode to share that experience, as well as her time living in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt. With roots in Palestine and having lived in several Arab and Muslim countries, Enas offers a wealth of knowledge, insights, and firsthand experiences about the region—and the current war in Gaza.
Deep Halder is an Indian journalist, author, and editor with a career spanning more than two decades in the media industry. He has worked with leading Indian publications such as India Today and India Today Group Online , covering various topics including politics, society, and culture. Halder is known for his writing on socio-political issues, particularly focusing on marginalized communities in India. One of his notable works is the book Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacr...
Isaac Yomtovian, originally known as Es’hagh Pesare’ Ebram Johood, traces his Persian roots back 2,500 years. He was born in Tehran near the Marble Palace of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. He immigrated to Israel, where he volunteered in the 1967 Six-Day War and earned a degree in Civil Engineering from the Technion. In 1971, Yomtovian moved to the US, obtaining a Master of Science from the University of Nebraska, and conducting post-graduate work at Cornell University. He later founded EnviroScien...
David Bernstein is a prominent law professor with expertise in constitutional law, civil rights, and legal history. He has authored influential books and articles on topics such as free speech, government regulation, and the protection of civil liberties. Known for his ability to bridge legal theory and practical application, Professor Bernstein is a vocal advocate for individual rights and the fair application of the law. In addition to his academic contributions, he frequently provides expert ...
Yirmiyahu Danzig is a content creator and digital educator specializing in Jewish diversity, history, and identity. His family has lived in Israel for nine generations, countering the narrative that Jews are colonizers in their own land. With roots in both the Old Yishuv of Jerusalem and the Caribbean, Yirmiyahu's unique heritage informs his social media activism, where he uses English, Hebrew, and Arabic to connect with diverse audiences. Inspired by his ancestors who lived in the Old City of J...
Jezebel, an ex-Jehovah’s Witness and Doomsday Cult survivor, spent over 20 years in the organization, enduring intense indoctrination, mind control, and emotional and mental abuse. Her experiences, including severe anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, are chronicled in two books written under her pen name. A lifelong historian and pro-freedom activist, Jezebel advocates for trauma survivorship and the sacredness of individual sovereignty. She promotes positive survivor mentality, emphasizi...
Social media sensation, Ashley Waxman Bakshi is an entrepreneur, content creator, TV host, and activist. Following the kidnapping of her cousin, Agam Berger, by Hamas on October 7th, Ashley has been dedicated to advocating for the release of Israeli hostages. She collaborates with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and has met with world leaders to push for sanctions against the IRGC and entities supporting Palestinian terrorist organizations in Canada and the European Union. Known for...
Richardis is a German feminist who became an activist after experiencing stalking at the hands of an abusive man who kept using his status as a Muslim migrant to try and reverse victim and offender. She also had to witness a friend fall victim to a Muslim grooming gang as an underage girl. Today, she’s part of a wider movement that fights violence against women and girls and vehemently opposes trivializing honor violence, the Islamic veil, FGM etc. She experiences the atmosphere in Germany in re...
Yasmine is first generation Israeli-American wife and mother, who has used her passion for Jewish history and representation to create and foster a community using her online work and advocacy, since 2016. Yasmines paternal Saba fled Aleppo at age 13, where he and his family had lived for hundreds and hundreds of years, as antisemitism became increasingly violent. Her Saba was rescued by the first Youth Aliyah group along with other children from Lebanon in 1943. He had to leave behind his mothe...
Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Born and raised in Israel, Dr. Wilf served as an Intelligence Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company. Dr. Wilf has a ...
Born into a Muslim-Jewish family in Morocco, Chama Metchaly has dedicated her career to creating safe spaces for dialogue and bridging the gaps between Muslim and Jewish narratives, as well as Eastern and Western values. Since the advent of the Abraham Accords, Mechtaly has advised numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations on regional integration and Israeli-Arab relations. Based in New York and Dubai, her work has been featured in international media, including a feature documenta...
At the age of 11, Uthman enrolled in an Islamic boarding school and graduated as an Islamic scholar. With over 20 years of experience as an Imam, he has dedicated his life to exploring and understanding religious dynamics. He holds a Master of Arts in Muslim-Christian Relations from Hartford International University and is currently a PhD student in anthropology, focusing on Coptic Christianity. Uthman's research is a deep dive into the intricate relationship between religion and cultural identi...
Hamza Howidy is peace activist living in exile. He was born and raised in Gaza. He lived under the control of Hamas and was imprisoned by them when he participated in the "We want to Live" protests. Join us to hear the truth about what it was like to live in Gaza, how dangerous it is to oppose Hamas publicly, and what he has to say to university students in the west praising the terrorist group that imprisoned and tortured him.
Jaleh Tavakoli and I went to Israel for a week as part of a delegation of people from across the Middle East invited to join a group called Sharaka. Sharaka means "partnership" in Arabic and the NGO is a partnership between the UAE and Israel that was inspired by the Abraham accords. Their mission is to "Shape a New Middle East- Together". While we were there we visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, as well as the Nova Forest, which holds an Oct 7th memorial. It was the first time for both...
Elica Le Bon is a British-born attorney, artist, activist, and speaker. She was born and raised in London and moved to Los Angeles to go to law school. Since then, she has worked foremost as a criminal defense attorney while developing a second career in activism, initially focused primarily on bringing light to issues surrounding human rights in Iran and the wider Middle East. Since starting, her unique voice has reached millions across various audiences and platforms around the world as a voic...
Gad Saad is a professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada - one of the cities that has seen the biggest eruption of antisemitism since Oct 7th. Gad was born in Beirut, Lebanon to a Jewish family with roots in Syria. As a child, the antisemitism his family encountered is one of the reasons why they fled from Lebanon to Canada. And now in Canada, he has to hear professors telling students to “go back to Poland” in reference to Auschwitz and the Holocaust where millions of Jewish people w...
Golsa Golestaneh is an Iranian-Canadian woman whose main passion is challenging misinformation, bias, and propaganda. Having a background in both Iranian and Canadian activist circles has helped her in analyzing sociopolitical issues factually and independently, rather than by relying on the mainstream narrative. Golsa will be joining us to talk about how she has been forced to attend diversity and inclusion reprogramming at her job because speaking up against the regime she escaped is socially ...
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is an American writer and analyst who grew up in Gaza City which he left in 2005 as a teenage exchange student. He writes extensively on Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs and has been an outspoken critic of Hamas and a promoter of coexistence and peace as the only path forward between Palestinians and Israelis. Alkhatib has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a Master’s in intelligence and national security studies. His writing has been published in U....
Sam Harris has a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He is the author of five New York Times best sellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance. He also hosts the Making Sense Podcast, which was selected by Apple as one of the “iTunes Best” and has won a Webby Award for best podcast in the Science & Education category. As well, ...
Unlike my regular interviews, this podcast is a discussion between myself and my friend Jay Shapiro. Jay grew up as a Zionist and I grew up as an Islamist. We will be discussing October 7th and the aftermath... and you are welcome to join us. Jay Shapiro is a writer and documentary filmmaker with a focus on philosophy and intellectually challenging subjects. He wrote and directed the film adaptation of the collaboration between philosopher Sam Harris and former imprisoned Muslim extremist turned...
Deepti joins us to speak about the organization she runs with a dedicated group of volunteers called CHINGARI. The organization aims to bring awareness to the world about the Hindu girls who are kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, forcefully married, and who face countless other atrocities in Sindh, Pakistan each day. Through informative advocacy, CHINGARI seeks to make local U.S. representatives aware of the unstable religious situation in Pakistan. Join us to speak to Deepti about her work,...
Siavash Safavi is a translator, former student activist, and political prisoner from Iran. He was sentenced to prison and lashing and had to escape the country in 2011. He arrived in Canada as a refugee in 2013 and in January 2017, he was labeled by the IRGC as one of the 30 traitors to the Islamic Republic for his opposition to the nuclear deal (JCPOA).
Madiha grew up in Pakistan before moving to the US. She will join us to share what life in like for girls and women in Pakistan and to tell us about her personal experiences and journey out of Islam and into becoming a free woman, a physician, a wife, a mother and the host of a YouTube page that explores the intersection of faith and modernity and dissecting ethical dilemmas. In her page she aims to spark meaningful conversations that transcend boundaries. Connect with Madiha on her YouTube chan...
In this very special Yasmine Mohammed Podcast, I will interview an incredibly brave woman named Dalia Ziada: Dalia is one of the most famous political analysts in the Arab world. She had to flee her country in fear for her life because she publicly told the truth about Hamas terrorists. In our conversation, she will explain why the Islamists are the enemy and why Europe and North America should be careful. Contact Dalia: dalia@egyldi.org Facebook.com/daliaziada Twitter @daliaziada Dalia's book: ...
Anna was born in USSR to a Jewish family who, due to antisemitism, immigrated to Israel when she was two years old. Anna grew up in Israel in a Jewish family who survived the Holocaust. When she was about 10 years old, her mother married a Muslim man and converted to Islam. To escape the enforced religion, and living with a man who celebrated 9/11, Anna left home when she was a teenager. She eventually left Israel and moved to the USA all by herself to start a new life. Anna now holds an MBA and...
Yasmeena was born in Afghanistan and moved to the UK when she was nine. At 19, she met her now husband, David. Because David was Jewish, he was threatened by her family with death threats and vile statements like " Too bad Hitler didn't finish you all off". When she informed the Met police, they told her it is a family matter. Yasmeena is now a model and an activist who uses her body as a canvas to tell provocative and empowering stories. Through her work, she challenges traditional and religiou...
Iffath is a former member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, a messianic sect of Islam considered heretical by most mainstream Muslims. Growing up in the USA in the state of Tennessee, she struggled with the multitude of restrictions placed on her, especially since she was female. The inner conflict she experienced led to decades of depression and self-loathing. A series of events beginning with the market crash of 2008 led her to deep inner work including personal development, meditation, and i...
Xehra is a professional fire performer, artist and activist who started her journey of independence by faking a marriage to return home to America after her family forcibly moved her to the Middle East. She now strives to inspire women to deprogram the oppression of shame culture through free movement, embracing their sexuality, and dancing with the fire that she was told to fear.
Sarah Edmondson has been a working actor for 25+ years, but she is most well-known for her real-life role in the downfall of the notorious NXIVM cult. In 2019, Sarah published Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult that Bound My Life, an acclaimed memoir chronicling her harrowing experience. Her story as a whistleblower has also been featured in the CBC podcast “Uncover: Escaping NXIVM” and “The Vow”, the critically-acclaimed HBO documentary series. In 2021, Sarah launched the ...
Elise Evans is a Women’s Rights Activist. She has been called the Katniss Everdeen of Saudi Arabia. Her passion and work highlight the draconian laws which keep women in a system that declares them minors until they die. Raised by a Saudi stepdad as a Saudi included molestation, prolonged confinement, physical & mental abuse, and more. She was subjected to the Male Guardianship Law, which stripped her of every right that she was born with as an American Citizen. She works diligently to highl...
