By Hannah Bayman BBC News Online
If you were being interrogated by the Taleban as asuspected US spy, it might be hard to imagine a happyending. But for journalist Yvonne Ridley, the ordeal inAfghanistan led her to convert to a religion she saysis "the biggest and best family in the world". The formerly hard-drinking Sunday school teacherbecame a Muslim after reading the Koran on herrelease. She now describes radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri as"quite sweet really" and says the Taleban havesuffered an unfair press. Working as a reporter for the Sunday Express inSeptember 2001, Ridley was smuggled from Pakistanacross the Afghan border. But her cover was blown when she fell off her donkeyin front of a Taleban soldier near Jalalabad,revealing a banned camera underneath her robes. Her first thought as the furious young man camerunning towards her? "Wow - you're gorgeous," she says. "He had those amazing green eyes that are peculiar tothat region of Afghanistan and a beard with a life ofits own. "But fear quickly took over. I did see him again on myway to Pakistan after my release and he waved at mefrom his car." Ridley was working for the Sunday Express at the timeof her capture Ridley was interrogated for 10 days without beingallowed a phone call, and missed her daughter Daisy'sninth birthday. Of the Taleban, Ridley says: "I couldn't support whatthey did or believed in, but they were demonisedbeyond recognition, because you can't drop bombs onnice people." It has been suggested the 46-year-old is a victim ofStockholm Syndrome, in which hostages take the side ofthe hostage-takers. But she says: "I was horrible to my captors. I spat atthem and was rude and refused to eat. It wasn't untilI was freed that I became interested in Islam." 'Flappy knickers' Indeed, the Taleban deputy foreign minister was calledin when Ridley refused to take her underwear down fromthe prison washing line, which was in view ofsoldier's quarters. "He said, 'Look, if they see those things they willhave impure thoughts'." "Afghanistan was about to be bombed by the richestcountry in the world and all they were concerned aboutwas my big, flappy, black knickers. "I realised the US doesn't have to bomb the Taleban -just fly in a regiment of women waving their underwearand they will all run off." Once she was back in the UK, Ridley turned to theKoran as part of her attempt to understand herexperience. "I was absolutely blown away by what I was reading -not one dot or squiggle had been changed in 1,400years. "I have joined what I consider to be the biggest andbest family in the world. When we stick together weare absolutely invincible." What do her Church of England parents in County Durhammake of her new family? "Initially the reaction of my family and friends wasone of horror, but now they can all see how muchhappier, healthier and fulfilled I am. "And my mother is delighted I've stopped drinking." What does Ridley feel about the place of women inIslam? "There are oppressed women in Muslim countries, but Ican take you up the side streets of Tyneside and showyou oppressed women there. "Oppression is cultural, it is not Islamic. The Koranmakes it crystal clear that women are equal." And her new Muslim dress is empowering, she says. "How liberating is it to be judged for your mind andnot the size of your bust or length of your legs." The reporter spent the first night of war in a prisoncell in Kabul A single mother who has been married three times, shesays Islam has freed her from worry over her lovelife. "I no longer sit and wait by the phone for a man toring and I haven't been stood up for months. "I have no man stress. For the first time since myteens I don't have that pressure to have a boyfriendor husband." But there has been a phone call from at least one maleadmirer - north London preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri. "He said, 'Sister Yvonne, welcome to Islam,congratulations'. "I explained I hadn't yet taken my final vows and hesaid, 'Don't be pressured or pushed, the wholecommunity is there for you if you need any help, justcall one of the sisters.' 'Straight to hellfire' "I thought, I can't believe it, this is the fire andbrimstone cleric from Finsbury Park mosque and he isquite sweet really. "I was just about to hang up when he said, 'But thereis just one thing I want you to remember. Tomorrow, ifyou have an accident and die, you will go straight tohellfire'. "I was so scared that I carried a copy of the vows inmy purse until my final conversion last June." And the hardest part of her new life? "Praying five times a day. And I am still strugglingto give up cigarettes."
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