Deeyah!

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Deeyah interview

Threats

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She's smart.

Why is it important to you to make it plain to the world that you are speaking as a Muslim woman?

Because it has become so important to some Muslim leaders and extremists to discredit me as a Muslim, I have had to justify my existence as a “Muslim artist”. I have now inadvertently become a sort of spokeswoman for a younger generation western-born Muslim women. I never really set out to do this. My heritage is something I’ve always been proud of but never forced onto people. Despite this I have never really been allowed to just be an artist and to get on with just music. My background has always become an issue (and a negative one at that) within the community. After years of trying to be the obedient and quiet girl that I was told to be if I wanted to earn support from the community, my efforts were always proven to be wrong and of no use. Proven wrong usually by extremes (mostly men) who were afraid of losing their power in a changing community. The fact that I have chosen a profession that is largely considered unacceptable and not respectable for a Muslim woman has always attracted not just insults and condemnation from certain sections of the community, but also intimidation and physical attacks and threats. It is only after more than 10 years of being silent and quietly taking this abuse that I decided to speak out.