Deeyah Khan: What we don't know about Europe's Muslim kids
Deeyah Khan: Lo que no sabemos de los jóvenes musulmanes europeos
Deeyah Khan is working to create intercultural dialogue and understanding by confronting the world's most complex and controversial topics. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
sabía que tenía superpoderes.
I knew I had superpowers.
because I could understand
porque era capaz de entender
of brown people,
a conservative Muslim guy.
musulmán conservativo.
my Afghan mother, my Pakistani father,
afgana, a mi padre paquistaní,
but laid-back, fairly liberal.
sino relativamente liberales.
también entendía
of white people.
de los blancos.
understand each other,
entendieran entre ellos.
was always really worried.
siempre estaba preocupado.
even with the best education,
incluso con la mejor educación,
according to him.
a la discriminación.
to be accepted by white people
los blancos me aceptaran,
with me when I was seven years old.
cuando yo tenía siete años.
or it's got to be music."
o el deporte, o la música."
bless him -- so it was music.
así que tocó música.
he gathered all my toys, all my dolls,
mis juguetes y muñecas,
a crappy little Casio keyboard and --
espantoso teclado Casio...
for hours and hours every single day.
a ensayar horas y horas cada día.
for larger and larger audiences,
públicos cada vez más grandes,
almost a kind of poster child
en una especie de "niña póster"
multicultural noruego.
hasta los periódicos
nice things about brown people,
sobre los morenos,
that my superpower was growing.
mi superpoder iba creciendo.
walking home from school,
de camino a casa de la escuela,
my favorite sweets called "salty feet."
preferidas, los "pies salados".
salty licorice bits in the shape of feet.
con forma de pie.
I realize how terrible that sounds,
me doy cuenta de lo mal que suena,
I absolutely love them.
a mí me encantaban.
in the doorway blocking my way.
puerta bloqueándome el paso.
and as I did that, he stopped me
al darse cuenta me detuvo
y me dijo...
you little Paki bitch,
pequeña perra Paki,
to wipe the spit off my face,
la saliva de la cara,
con las lágrimas.
hoping that any minute now,
esperando que en cualquier momento
and make this guy stop.
a decirle algo.
and pretended not to see me.
a mi lado fingiendo no verme.
because I was thinking, well,
porque pensaba,
Where are they? What's going on?
¿Dónde están? ¿Qué pasa?
coming and rescuing me?
a rescatarme?"
I didn't buy the sweets.
me compré los dulces.
lo más rápido que podía.
me dije a mí misma.
the more successful I became,
fui teniendo más éxito.
attracting harassment from brown people.
insultaban los morenos.
felt that it was unacceptable
mis padres pensaban que era
to be involved in music
mujer hiciera música
to become attacked at my own concerts.
ataques en mis conciertos.
I was onstage, I lean into the audience
me incliné hacia el público,
is a young brown face
un rostro joven y moreno
of chemical is thrown in my eyes
una sustancia química en los ojos.
and my eyes were watering
los ojos sin poder ver nada,
of Oslo, this time by brown men.
a escupir, esta vez hombres morenos.
nunca se terminaban.
stopped me in the street one time,
me paró por la calle y me dijo:
I hate you so much
lo que les dé la gana."
que tuviera cuidado.
and the job of whores,
Islam, y es para prostitutas,
you are going to be raped
te van a violar
another whore like you will not be born.
puedas parir a otra prostituta como tú.
to treat me like this -- how come?
me trataban así, ¿por qué?
the two worlds,
between my two worlds.
por el vacío entre ambos.
los escupitajos eran criptonita.
and the harassment was constant.
y el acoso era constante.
my mother sat me down and said,
que un día mi madre me dijo:
we can no longer keep you safe,
I packed my suitcase and I left.
hice las maletas y me fui.
was that nobody said anything.
es que nadie dijo nada.
nobody said anything.
nadie dijo nada.
because she is one of us."
porque es uno de nosotros."
you know at the airport,
sabéis en los aeropuertos,
you have these different suitcases
pasan varias maletas
that one suitcase left at the end,
maleta que se queda,
the one that nobody comes to claim.
la que nadie recoge.
I'd never felt so lost.
tan sola y perdida.
I did eventually resume my music career.
retomé mi carrera musical.
the same old story.
la misma historia.
saying that I was going to be killed
que decía que me iban a matar
were going to flow
ríos de sangre,
many times before I died.
varias veces antes de morir.
la verdad es que
to messages like this,
a ese tipo de mensajes,
now they started threatening my family.
a amenazar a mi familia.
I left music and I moved to the US.
dejé la música, y me fui a EEUU.
to do with this anymore.
de aquello nunca más.
going to be killed for something
que me mataran por algo
it was my father's choice.
que era cosa de mi padre.
however many years of my life
for various organizations
en varias organizaciones
with young Muslims inside of Europe.
musulmanes en Europa.
que había tantos jóvenes
were suffering and struggling.
with their families and their communities
con sus familias y comunidades
about their honor and their reputation
su honor y su reputación
and the lives of their own kids.
de sus propios hijos.
so alone, maybe I wasn't so weird.
no estaba sola, que no era rara.
of my people out there.
como yo por ahí.
don't understand
growing up in Europe
creciendo en Europa
with people that we choose.
persona que elegimos.
heartlands of Europe.
núcleos musulmanes europeos.
in the world, we're not free.
más libres, nosotros no lo somos.
does not belong to us,
futuro no nos pertenece,
and their community.
y a su comunidad.
historias de jóvenes
and they are suffering alone.
y lo hacen en silencio.
to honor-based violence and abuse.
forzados, en abusos y violencia de honor.
years of working with these young people,
con estos jóvenes,
puedo huir para siempre.
being scared and hiding
la vida asustada y escondida
going to have to do something.
that my silence, our silence,
mi silencio, nuestro silencio
de abuso continúe.
my childhood superpower to some use
de la infancia
sides of these issues understand
están en lados opuestos
between your family and your country.
atrapado entre su familia y su país.
and I started telling these stories.
y a contar estas historias.
the deadly consequences of us
las fatales consecuencias
hice era sobre Banaz.
Kurdish girl in London.
17 años que vivía en Londres.
whatever her parents wanted.
hacía lo que sus padres querían.
that her parents chose for her,
que sus padres habían elegido,
and raped her constantly.
y la violaba constantemente.
to her family for help, they said,
ayuda a su familia, le dijeron:
and be a better wife."
a divorced daughter on their hands
con una hija divorciada
bring dishonor on the family.
una deshonra para la familia.
her ears would bleed,
que le sangraban las orejas,
and she found a young man that she chose
encontró un chico que le gustaba
and buried underneath the house.
y enterrado bajo la casa.
she had been beaten to death
y golpeada hasta la muerte
on the orders of her father and uncle.
mandados por el padre y el tío.
in England five times asking for help,
a la policía de Inglaterra cinco veces
going to be killed by her family.
la iba a matar.
so they didn't do anything.
así que no hicieron nada.
facing these problems
sufriendo estos problemas
and within their families' communities,
y sus comunidades,
con malentendidos
that they grow up in.
en los que han crecido.
they look to the rest of us,
traiciona ellos acuden a nosotros.
les comprendemos,
several people said to me,
varias personas me dijeron,
this is just their culture,
do to their kids
de tratar a sus hijos
being murdered is not my culture.
ser asesinada no es mi cultura.
from backgrounds like me,
de raíces como las mías,
the same protections
derechos y la misma protección
I wanted to try and understand
quería intentar comprender
Muslim kids in Europe
jóvenes musulmanes en Europa
el extremismo y la violencia.
to have to face my worst fear:
enfrentar a mi mayor miedo:
u otros parecidos,
for most of my life.
la mayor parte de mi vida.
most of my life.
la mayor parte de mi vida.
con toda mi alma,
interviewing convicted terrorists,
entrevistando a terroristas convictos,
what was very obvious already,
aquello que era obvio
Europe's colonial baggage,
la tradición colonialista europea,
failures of recent years,
occidentales de los últimos años,
in finding out was what are the human,
era averiguar cuáles son
are susceptible to groups like this.
son susceptibles a estos grupos.
was that I found wounded human beings.
me encontraba con personas heridas.
that I was looking for,
it would have been very satisfying --
habría sido muy satisfactorio...
were torn apart
chicos estaban destrozados
superar la brecha
and the countries that they were born in.
en los que habían crecido.
is that extremist groups, terrorist groups
terroristas y extremistas
of these feelings of our young people
de estos sentimientos
channeling that toward violence.
cínica hacia la violencia.
your family and your country
tu familia y tu país
is more important than you
es más importante que tú,
will always be white and never you."
siempre será blanco, no como tú."
the things that they crave:
las cosas que estos chicos anhelan:
a sense of belonging and purpose,
un propósito, sentir que encajan,
les quiere y les acepta.
a los impotentes.
are finally seen and heard.
por fin tienen voz y presencia.
for our young people.
a nuestros chicos.
for our young people and not us?
lo hacen y no nosotros?
is that we have to understand
es que debemos entender
are attracted to this.
nuestros chicos buscan esto.
of some of the guys in the film.
chicos cuando eran pequeños.
is that so many of them --
have absent or abusive fathers.
padres agresivos o ausentes.
and compassionate father figures
cariñosas y compasivas
brutalized by racist violence,
por la violencia racista,
to stop feeling like victims
de dejar de sentirse víctimas
to my horror, that I recognized.
algo que yo misma reconocía.
as a 17-year-old as I fled from Norway.
al huir de Noruega con 17 años.
la misma pena,
and torn between cultures.
y dividida entre culturas.
I did not choose destruction,
el camino de la destrucción.
instead of a gun.
en lugar de la pistola.
is because of my superpower.
es mi superpoder.
is the answer, instead of violence.
es la respuesta y no la violencia.
los malos y las víctimas.
come to terms with the fact
didn't have to be on a collision course
por qué chocar entre ellas
where I found my own voice.
encontré sitio para mi voz.
like I had to pick a side,
de elegir un bando,
muchos años.
of our young people today
de nuestros jóvenes
en heridas abiertas.
of radical Islam
del Islam radical
that festers in these open wounds.
que supura en estas heridas.
initiated into the village,
just to feel its warmth."
con el fin de sentir su calor."
y cuidar de sus hijos,
to meet your expectations?
cumplan sus expectativas?
antes que a su honra?
why they're so angry and alienated
están tan enfadados y alienados
before their happiness?
el honor a la felicidad?
amigos de su hijo
puedan confiar en ustedes
their experiences,
sus experiencias,
to seek it somewhere else?
esa confianza en otro sitio?
tempted by extremism,
tentados por el extremismo,
that your rage is fueled by pain?
su ira se alimenta del dolor?
to resist those cynical old men
resistirse ante esos viejos cínicos
for their own profits?
para sus propios fines?
a happy, full and free life?
feliz, plena y libre?
y no por nadie más.
just another dead Muslim kid?
en otro musulmán muerto?
listening to our young people?
a escuchar a nuestros jóvenes?
into something more constructive?
a objetivos más constructivos?
what happens to them.
lo que les pase.
to make them feel differently?
de que piensen diferente?
to see them and notice them
darnos cuenta de que existen
or the perpetrators of violence?
o en perpetradores de la violencia?
and consider them to be our own?
y verlos como nuestros propios hijos?
of violence look like ourselves?
se parecen a nosotros?
and heal the divisions between us?
y sanar nuestras divisiones?
to give up on each other or on our kids,
permitirnos darlos por perdidos,
hecho con nosotros.
will not work against extremists.
funcionarán con los extremistas.
to huddle in our houses in fear,
escondamos en casa,
y del corazón cerradas.
more wounds in our societies
en nuestras sociedades
to spread their infection more widely.
todo con su infección.
convirtamos en ellos:
intolerantes y llenas de odio.
los ataques de París
sent this photo of her daughter.
esta foto de su hija.
for extremists.
criptonita de los extremistas.
with their superpowers
con sus superpoderes
that we need to build together,
que debemos construir juntos,
incluye y apoya,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Deeyah Khan - FilmmakerDeeyah Khan is working to create intercultural dialogue and understanding by confronting the world's most complex and controversial topics.
Why you should listen
Deeyah Khan is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director and founder of Fuuse, a media and arts company that puts women, people from minorities and third-culture kids at the heart of telling their own stories. In 2016, Khan became the first UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for artistic freedom and creativity. She has received many honors for her work supporting freedom of expression, human rights and peace, including the Ossietzky Prize, the University of Oslo's Human Rights Award and the Peer Gynt Prize from the Parliament of Norway.
Born in Norway to immigrant parents of Pashtun and Punjabi ancestry, Khan's experience of living between different cultures, both the beauty and the challenges, shapes her artistic vision. Her 2012 multi-award winning documentary, Banaz: A Love Story, chronicles the life and death of Banaz Mahmod, a young British Kurdish woman murdered by her family in a so-called honor killing. Khan's second film, the Grierson and Bafta award-nominated Jihad, involved two years of interviews and filming with Islamic extremists, convicted terrorists and former jihadis. One of Fuuse's recent initiatives, born of Deeyah’s own experiences, is sister-hood, a digital magazine and series of live events spotlighting the voices of women of Muslim heritage. Khan has also produced a number of critically acclaimed albums, including Listen to the Banned, a compilation that brought together musicians from around the world who have been subject to persecution, 'censorship and imprisonment.
The focus of Khan's work and access to voices that are often overlooked and misunderstood has led to increasing demand as a speaker at international human rights events and platforms including the United Nations. She was described by The Times of London thus: "To say Deeyah Khan is an inspiration is an understatement. She is one of the bravest, most indomitable women … facing down bullies and extremists with intelligence and unflinching spirit."
(Photo: Geir Dokken)
Deeyah Khan | Speaker | TED.com