Deeyah KhanEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Deeyah Khan was raised in Norway by Pakistani and Afghan parents. Deeyah reflects on growing up feeling caught between worlds and how art, activism, and music became both refuge and resistance. She shares how her early experiences shaped her Emmy and BAFTA-winning work documenting white supremacy, violent extremism, gender-based violence, and the dangerous rise of authoritarian movements around the world. Anushay and Deeyah dive into some of the defining issues of our era: Muslim identity in the West, honor-based violence, white supremacy in America, Christian nationalism, media complicity, immigration, and the global backlash against women’s rights and democracy. Deeyah speaks candidly about embedding herself with neo-Nazis and extremists for her documentaries White Right: Meeting the Enemy and Jihad: A Story of the Others , revealing what she learned about fear, hate, belonging, and the possibility of human connection even in the most divided spaces. Together, they examine how silence enables oppression — and why hope itself can become an act of resistance. At its core, this episode is a conversation about courage: the courage to speak honestly, confront injustice, reject fear, and build solidarity across borders and differences. Deeyah offers a powerful reminder that no one is coming to save us — that meaningful change depends on ordinary people choosing compassion, truth, and action. This is one of The Pain Gap’s most timely, provocative, and unforgettable conversations yet. Episode Resources: Deeyah Khan's Website Deeyah Khan's Instagram The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her substack . To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

I feel very confident in saying that this is quite possibly the most important, powerful, and for me, inspiring interview I've ever done. This one is on the longer side but it is worth every minute. I could have done a series with Deeyah. Deeyah Khan is a BAFTA– and two-time Emmy Award–winning documentary filmmaker known for her deeply empathetic and unflinching storytelling. Her work explores some of the most urgent and polarising issues of our time, including extremism, violence against women, racism, inequality, and social exclusion. Over the course of her career, she has spent years engaging directly with individuals involved in violence and extremist movements. Her documentaries feature jihadists, convicted anti-abortion terrorists, as well as current and former white supremacists and armed militia groups in the United States. Through these encounters, she seeks to understand the human stories behind radicalisation and division. In addition to her filmmaking, Deeyah is the founder of Fuuse, an independent media and arts production company. In 2016, she was appointed UNESCO’s first Goodwill Ambassador for artistic freedom and creativity. Born in Norway to Muslim immigrant parents, Deeyah’s experience of navigating multiple cultures informs her creative vision. This perspective brings a distinctive emotional honesty and humanity to her work, shaping films that not only challenge audiences, but also foster connection, deeper understanding and dialogue. I encountered Deeyah's work in her documentary "White Right: Meeting the Enemy" and it is TRULY transformative. She sat in rooms with white supremacists I'd be nervous to sit in and she did it with fierceness, determination, courage and love. And some of those men left the movement due to her influence. She is a rockstar and I can't wait to share this story with you.

Thomas talks with award-winning documentary filmmaker Deeyah Khan about her experience of interviewing extremists. Rather than dismissing them as unreachable fanatics, Deeyah has decided to engage them directly as human beings, with respect for our common humanity. She and Thomas reflect on how to remain hopeful and empathetic amidst the social divisiveness of our time. Multi-award-winning filmmaker Deeyah Khan has directed documentaries such as “Banaz: A Love Story (2012)” and “White Right: Meeting The Enemy (2017)”, which have shed light on the heartbreaking reality of discrimination and violence while telling people’s compelling stories through a loving lens. Dehumanizing others causes us to lose our humanity. Do you have the courage to open your mind and remain hopeful for change? Key Points: 2:57 Deeyah’s purpose in filmmaking 12:56 Why the focus on dark, brutal topics? 17:57 When the unexpected becomes a lifesaver 21:51 Authenticity is healing 24:59 Dehumanizing others means dehumanizing yourself 29:20 On making “White Right” 38:51 Change is always possible 43:43 Extremism lures the broken 49:50 Learn to sit with the darkness 52:55 Love conquers all 59:46 One simple step creates the biggest impact 1:03:09 Dealing with a polarized world --------------- Deeyah Khan is a Norwegian multi-awarded documentary film director and human rights activist. Her debut film, Banaz: A Love Story (2012) won an Emmy and a Peabody. She is the founder and CEO of Fuuse, a leading documentary film and digital media company for broadcasters and live events. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Sister-Hood Magazine, spotlighting the diverse voices of women of Muslim heritage. She became the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Artistic Freedom and Creativity in 2016. Website: deeyah.com Twitter: @Deeyah_Khan Instagram: @deeyahkhan Facebook: facebook.com/Deeyah.deeyah --------------- Thomas Hübl is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator whose lifelong work integrates the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since 2004, he has taught and facilitated programs with more than 100,000 people worldwide, including online courses which he began offering in 2008. The origin of his work and more than two decades of study and practice on healing collective trauma is detailed in his book Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds Connect with Thomas here: Website: https://thomashuebl.com/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/Thomas.Huebl.Sangha/ Instagram/Twitter: @thomashuebl YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thomashuebl Sign up for updates by visiting our website: 👉 pointofrelationpodcast.com

UNESCO goodwill ambassador, filmmaker and human rights activist. She has won two BAFTAs and an Emmy for her documentaries. In this podcast the focus of their conversation is freedom of speech.

Award-winning film director Deeyah Khan talks about why she spent months of her life talking to white supremacists, Islamic extremists, and anti-abortionists, plus she gives some incredible insights into what drives them and what could reduce the levels of polarisation. This podcast is produced from Compassion in Politics, the think tank that works to bring more compassion into public life and is distributed by The Real Agenda Network of podcasts for progressive change. www.compassioninpolitics.com www.realagenda.org

Extreme listening are two words that don’t usually go together. But there is no other way to describe what Deeyah Khan does. A Muslim woman, she made a documentary, White Right: Meeting the Enemy, about spending time with white supremacists. Her results were so profound, it raises the question, what if we all had the capacity for extreme listening? This is…A Bit of Optimism. YouTube: http://youtube.com/simonsinek Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simonsinek Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/simonsinek/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/simonsinek/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonsinek Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/officialsimonsinek/

What draws someone into an extremist movement? Is it about ideology? Race? Politics? So many of our discussions about extremism try to explain away the problem by reducing its complexity, but that brings us further and further away from actually solving it. Deeyah Khan is a British documentary filmmaker and human rights activist. She’s the creator of two extraordinary films airing on Netflix right now, White Right: Meeting the Enemy and Jihad: A Story of the Others . The films do a remarkable job of showing why these opposing brands of extremism are both similar and reciprocal, and why the people they attract mirror each other in so many ways. Khan spent hours with the most extreme figures she could find, and made a real effort to understand what’s motivating them. She sat down with Vox’s interviews writer, Sean Illing , for a conversation about what she discovered, why the roots of fanaticism are much deeper than we suppose, and what we have to do win the battle against hatred. Recommended reading: It's Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan From Fatwa to Jihad by Kenan Malik Faith and Feminism in Pakistan by Afiya S. Zia We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3X6WMNF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This Deeyah Khan episode is special. She is an award winning documentary filmmaker who has met and confronted Jihadists and members of the KKK in order to understand what drives them. So much insight, bravery and practical love on difficult topics - religion/race/gender/identity. Also COINCIDENTALLY I barely speak in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.