I don’t live in Paris. I don’t live in an Islamic State. Neither do I live under the control of ISIS. But there's one thing that terrorizes me even more, to live under the control of the society.

As a muslim girl, people tell me all sorts of things. They tell me I don't deserve education. I don’t deserve to voice my opinions. I don’t deserve all the things they have.

This is why I am here to speak, to tell those people living under ignorance that not all muslims are killers or terrorists. Just like how not every islamic person is a terrorist, not all non-islamic people believe in these horrible lies.

I use to despise those who did, just like how they despise me. But one day, a sudden realisation came to me. I realized that I was just like those who did. I failed to see the other person’s story. Everyday, society tells these incredible tales about terrorist attacks, and everyday the media points their fingers to the Islamic religion. I failed to see that it is because of the pressure from the society that their minds have been brainwashed to say those words. This thought gave me a new way to view these people.

I shouldn’t look at them with hatred.

Neither should they look at me with hatred.

There’s no other way to do that, but to try to understand the other person’s story.

Some people have tried to understand my story. I have tried to understand their story. But there’s one story that nobody has tried to understand.

What is the story of ISIS? Why is it that they take lives and vent their frustrations to other people? Even though I hated the fact that ISIS took the name of Muslims, I hated the fact that ISIS killed a person with the name of our God, I hated it that with our sacred Quran was used to manipulate those who can’t read, but I don’t hate ISIS.

Just thinking about the deep hatred they have for others unlike them frightens me. For a person to be under such deep delusion, for a person to hold such deep hatred, underneath all these emotions must be a person in desolation. They must have lost everything. They must have lost everything to the society.

I’m not saying that we should tolerate the terrorist attacks of ISIS because there is no justifiable reason to take a person’s life. What I am saying is that we shouldn’t simply fight to free the people living under the control of terrorists, but to fight to free the minds of terrorists as well.

Through all the criticism I’ve heard, I have learned one thing. To see a person as who they truly are. I believe that each person in the world has their own story. Before we truly understand anybody and before we can have the right to make judgements, we must look at their story. We must let them tell their story.