In April 2022, I spoke at the Global Counterterrorism Institute’s panel talk on “Women in Extremism” and asked the question of whether women’s rights as the West has interpreted them, interfere with women’s needs. Did the drive to push a ‘strong independent woman’ annex a woman from her innate and intuitive need for connection?

“This is the only prayer I know. This is the only prayer that only I know. This is my prayer, in the tongue of my embodiment. A language only I know.” — Shireen Qudosi. A practice in embodiment through non-linear movement that is as sacred as any inherited prayer.