On this episode of our podcast we sit down with Carley Deardorff, an international communications strategist. Carley grew up in a small town in Texas in a majority white community. Post 9/11 she had no exposure to Muslims and her only source was the media that vilified Muslims. The impression that Islam is a patriarchal religion, where women have no rights, the tendency to conflate local cultures with the religion itself and the unforgiving attitudes towards Muslim societies in which “Radical Islam” is the default and “the moderate Muslim” is the alternative... when neither exist.
Carley discusses the minimal exposure she had with Muslims growing up. And not befriending one until she was in her master’s program. However, she had unlearned much of the propaganda well before then. Coming to the conclusion on her own that most Muslim women don’t feel oppressed and the definition of freedom simply means the choice of a woman to wear whatever she wants. She came to the conclusion that what she thinks freedom looks like for a woman looks different from what freedom may look like for a Muslim woman who covers. Her self realization of who Muslims are reinforces the fact that it does not require a token Muslim friend for a person to come to the conclusion that Muslims, particularly Muslim women are regular everyday people.
Due couldn't join us for this episode but will be back with us next week!