Yasmine was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. However, she endured similar struggles to girls born in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iran. Yasmine had to survive an extremely religious and fundamentalist upbringing in Canada.

When she was 19, she was forced to marry a member of Al Qaeda and she quickly became pregnant with her baby girl. Not wanting her daughter to have the same life she did, she planned a daring escape. Her mother threatened to have her killed for getting divorced, living alone, taking off her hijab, and sullying the family honor. 

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Through writing her best-selling book Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims, translated into 16 languages so far, Yasmine shares her unique story of trauma and survival with her readers, and empowers others to share their own experiences.  Copies of her book in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Indonesian can be accessed for free courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation.
 

From elevating the voices of marginalized freethinkers on her podcast, to creating a global network of allies across religious and political divides through co-founding and co-directing the CLARITy Coalition, Yasmine is one of the most prominent and vocal figures supporting persecuted freethinkers across the globe. Her charity Free Hearts Free Minds was the only nonprofit on the planet dedicated to supporting the mental health of freethinkers and LGBT from Muslim communities across the world.

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Yasmine is fearlessly and fiercely committed to her global advocacy through talks around the world, partnering with organizations such as Six Million Voices, conducting countless interviews in both traditional mainstream and digital media. Yasmine has been featured in CNN, People magazine, NPR, Charlie Hebdo, Le Point, The Jerusalem Post, ABC Australia and many others.  She has also spoken in Ivy League universities including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Dartmouth.