Zara Kay, an Australian citizen and founder of Faithless Hijab, was held in Tanzanian police custody for 32 hours without charge. She was interrogated about her work to help women who are leaving Islam.  Her charges are a form of state blasphemy and include being critical of the government.  

 

Elie Wiesel wrote:

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Remember that ex-Muslim women get hit twice as hard as ex-Muslim men. They get all sorts of vile messages and threats.  I can’t even share them here as they will not be allowed on YouTube but trust me, they are really disgusting. 

How did this happen?   These charges are politically motivated and believed to be initiated by those from the Khoja Shia Ithnasheri Jamaat. These people have threatened Zara in the past for leaving Islam and for her activism in support of ex-Muslims and women.”

Her words:

“They can try shaking me but they won’t break me.”

 

So what we see here is a perfect example of what happens to anyone who tries to speak against Islam.  Every angle of your life is scrutinized.  These people will try to target you however they can. They will try to hack your accounts, find out where you live, where you work and then doxx you – meaning post your public details online.  They will slander you, demonize you, make you look like the worst person.  They will call you fat, ugly, a loser, an idiot, low IQ etc..

Digging up old posts and escalating to the government is just another tactic used to silence dissent. The first charge she has is regarding something she said while she was in the UK about Tanzania’s handling of Covid19.  The second charge is regarding not giving her passport back after she got an Australian one, which should probably be a fine and not a jail sentence. And the third one is a technical charge over using her family members SIM card instead of her own probably because she was temporarily living in the country and didn’t feel she should get her own. That should really just be thrown out.

There is one more thing these people would do which I haven’t mentioned is that if they could, they would physically harm us. They would take ex-Muslims and imprison us and even execute us to shut us up and shut us down.

This is a moment where we all need to stand together against religious bullies and fascists who want to shoot us down quite literally. To stand  against this Shia community that wants to see her rot in prison and stop her activism.  

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

― Elie Wiesel

 

We are going to rally to her cause.  We are not going to let these Muslims shut her down.  Here is what the Council of Ex-Muslims Britain is proposing:

“We call on the public to continue to take urgent action by contacting Tanzanian embassies in countries of residence and the Tanzanian government calling for all charges against Zara Kay to be dropped and that she be permitted to leave the country.

Please also contact Australian embassies in countries of residence urging them to immediately intervene on behalf of Zara and get her home safe.

Here is CEMB’s press release which also has a list of emails and twitter accounts that you can contact.  You can tweet the Tanzanian president John Magufuli directly as well as contact YOUR LOCAL EMBASSY.

We need to especially support ex-Muslim women as there are much less of them, and they are able to connect with Muslim sisters like nobody else.  My audience on YouTube is predominantly men.  So lets help balance that out by featuring female ex-Muslim content producers.

So that’s what I wanted to share – an appeal to support Zara and get her back on her feet.  I don’t know when she will be able to start her activism again, but lets make this crisis a bit more manageable for her. After this is over, lets continue to support her and other ex-Muslim women.

One last thing, I will be reapplying to be back in the partner program and reactivating channel memberships on YouTube in the new year.  Hope those of you who got your membership suspended will rejoin once it’s back.

Here’s to a happier 2021 for all of us.