Yasmine Mohammed Podcast

Sarah Edmondson has been a working actor for 25+ years, but she is most well-known for her real-life role in the downfall of the notorious NXIVM cult.In 2019, Sarah published Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult that Bound My Life, an acclaimed memoir chronicling her harrowing experience. Her story as a whistleblower has also been featured in the CBC podcast “Uncover: Escaping NXIVM” and “The Vow”, the critically-acclaimed HBO documentary series.In 2021, Sarah launched the A Little Bit Culty podcast with her husband Anthony ‘Nippy’ Ames, on a mission to shine much-needed light on issues of cultic abuse and undue influence. With nearly 5M downloads to date and guests like Eckhart Tolle and Leah Remini, it has become a powerful platform and connective space for cult-survivors, recovery advocates, and mind-control experts alike.A mom of two boys, Sarah continues to work as an actor and podcaster from her home in Atlanta while making time to attend conferences and events around the world as a speaker and cult-recovery advocate.

Elise Evans is a Women’s Rights Activist. She has been called the Katniss Everdeen of Saudi Arabia. Her passion and work highlight the draconian laws which keep women in a system that declares them minors until they die. Raised by a Saudi stepdad as a Saudi included molestation, prolonged confinement, physical & mental abuse, and more. She was subjected to the Male Guardianship Law, which stripped her of every right that she was born with as an American Citizen.She works diligently to highlight the current situation on the ground in Saudi Arabia not just because she has three younger Saudi sisters and many Saudi friends but because she personally suffered many injustices until finally finding freedom in the United States at the age of thirty.She has spoken internationally and locally, raising awareness about the Male Guardianship Law, Sports-Washing, Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, Victim Shaming, Forced Disappearances, Honor Killings, Sham Trials, Executions, and other Human Rights Violations happening on a day-to-day basis in Saudi Arabia.She interned for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in Riyadh, and was the head of HR for the MENA Region for The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. She worked as the Executive Assistant to the group Publisher at D Magazine in Dallas, TX and is currently a successful CEO. Her Autobiography an American Princess in Saudi Arabia is due to be released in late 2024. She resides in the United States, the land of the free.Follow her on Twitter/X for daily updates: @EliseMEvans“I will never be silent again” - Elise Evans

Sara was born in a (mostly) secular family in an extremely religious country. She left Iran when realized she would never see her 30th birthday if she stayed any longer. Since last September, and the start of the revolution in Iran, she has started talking to her therapist more about her experiences in Iran, which led her therapist to diagnose Sara with PTSD, severe anxiety, minor depression and panic disorder, realizing how severely she was affected and how she barely survived the Islamic Regime. Sara has two cats that she loves dearly and "a husband who is just as Islamophobic as I am". Join me and Sara as we talk about her traumatic experiences with Islam and how it has affected her as well as how the #WomanLifeFreedom revolution has helped her to realize that she's not as lonely as she used to believe.

Collin May has a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard, a political philosophy degree from the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris, and a law degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. While at Harvard, he studied the falisifa with the world’s foremost expert on medieval Islamic philosophy, Dr. Muhsin Mahdi.On May 25, 2022, the Alberta government appointed him as the first openly gay man to serve as Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and Tribunals. On September 15, 2022, he was fired by the Alberta government due to the demands of the National Council of Canadian Muslims.He was accused of ‘Islamophobia’ by the NDP citing a 13 year old academic book review that Collin wrote for a book written by Middle East Historian Efraim Karsh. They claimed the book review was “racist, Islamophobic and hateful”. Under pressure from those wielding this semantic weapon ‘Islamophobia’, the weak conservative provincial government fired him after only a few months in his new position.Join us to speak with Collin to learn the details of how this baseless and obviously politically motivated character assassination has entirely disrupted his life and his livelihood.

Jasmine grew up following the Jain religion in India. The religion has a very small following of 6 million worldwide and comprises little more than .5% of the population in India. She had questions about Jainism from a very young age. She was different from others - she noticed that early on: where others accepted the beliefs and status quo, she wanted to know why. Her curious mind always had questions and wanted answers that made sense to her. Today she is a rational egoist and does not believe in or follow any religion. Join me and Jasmine to find out about this elusive religion- is it really the anomaly so many think it is?

Lois grew up in a Nazarene family in Kansas City, Missouri, going to four church services each Sunday and one on Wednesday. By the time she was 17 at a Nazarene College, she was going to chapel every day. But despite all this constant connection with her faith, she still had doubts. She had doubts ever since she was a young child. She still had doubts even while she was a professor at a Christian college. It wasn’t until she found herself in a marriage with an alcoholic, sociopathic, ex-convict that all her doubts reached a crescendo. Join me as I speak with Lois about how she was able to free herself from that awful marriage and from the indoctrination that poisoned her mind from birth. As Lois says: “When I lost my faith, I found myself.”Lois is the Coordinator for Life Without Religion"A safe place to be together"Life Without Religion (LWR) is an anonymous  peer support group for people who have had (or continue to have) difficulties due to religion. If you are interested in participating in Life Without Religion, please contact the coordinator directly at: loislwr@gmail.com

Elnaz is an Iranian American women’s rights activist born and raised in Iran where she graduated as an engineer and was a business owner. She moved to the US in 2008 and worked in Tech companies including Google for more than a decade. After a decade in America, she decided to become vocal about the treatment of women by the Islamic Republic of Iran: she produced a weekly podcast with Women for Sustainable Freedom & Equality, held workshops on creating content for Iranian activists and worked closely with journalist and activist Masih Alinejad. Now, Elnaz is busy caring for her newborn daughter, Roshan, who was born a week after Iranian #WomanLifeFreedom revolution, working in a local FM radio station and writing to echo the voice of Iranian women in the world.

For this very special episode of Forgotten Feminists, I will be speaking with a woman who certainly is not, and never can be, forgotten: Asra Nomani. Asra is a journalist, author, activist and one of my personal heroines and mentors. Asra is a woman of tiny stature who takes on the most goliath of fights against Islamic extremism and secular extremism as manifested today in what is referred to as "woke". Asra will talk to us about her life, her close encounters with terrorists, her activism, and her latest book: Woke Army - a book that uncovers the close links in America between Muslim and Woke organizations.

Anne was raised by a Palestinian father and American convert mother. However, unlike most American girls, she was homeschooled and forced into hijab. Her suffocating home life pushed her to attempt suicide at 17. When she was hospitalized, it was the first time in her life that she’d spent the night free from the grip of her family. “I came away from that experience with a single conclusion: I was going to leave this house in a body bag if I didn’t find a way out”. Join me and Anne to hear about her nail-biting escape and her life of success and freedom today.

When Deb was 19, she escaped the cult her mother had joined when she was 11. After eight years trapped in a cult, she was alone. She had zero life skills, no money, and no place to live. She was terrified, but she was free. She knew she would make it; she just didn’t know how! Eventually she married a Muslim man and had a son. Her son is a conservative Muslim living in the UAE where his wife and daughter are required to wear hijab. Join me to talk with Deb on her very tumultuous life and what she is doing today to support others who are cult survivors. "My voice was silenced in the cult, so now I speak, tell my story, connect with others and hope that by doing so, others who felt alone and were silenced find advocacy and are able to speak and tell their stories too." Thank you for watching the video, Deb D: Escaping A Methodist Cult And Marriage To A Muslim by Yasmine Mohammed and get to know more about it.