Final December Deadline: Ilham’s Life in a 1/5th Limbo #9
[ 2 minutes to read] March 2026 – We often talk about time in abstract terms, but for Ilham, time is…
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The case of developing countries: Religion as a detriment
[ 6 minutes to read] Religion is often described as a source of morality, community, and identity. Yet in much of…
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We can question Christianity, not Islam
[ 4 minutes to read] You can question Christianity in most Western countries, you can mock it, you can publish it….
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Religious power vs secular policy: Who wins?
[ 4 minutes to read] Throughout history, human societies have swung between religious authority and secular governance. The lines have never…
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Afghan student in Türkiye faces deportation into the hands of the Taliban #8
[ 4 minutes to read] July 2025 – A young Afghan refugee studying in Türkiye faces a daunting deadline as his student…
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How freethought is redefining global politics
[ 4 minutes to read] They say, “We can’t have freedom of speech in Europe. We’re not America.” But how can…
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Bombing Iran? Diplomacy? There are other good options
[ 5 minutes to read] The Western approach to Iran is deeply flawed. It fails not only as strategy but also…
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The Hypocrisy of ‘Defense’: How Israel’s Actions Mirror the Nazi Genocidal Machine
[ 13 minutes to read] It is ironic. Nazi Germany had tried to hide, camouflage and then destroy the evidence of…
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Separation of church and state, secularism and state atheism
[ 6 minutes to read] A secular state must not favor any religion. But it should also not allow religion to…
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The Fall of Bashar al-Assad: A Gateway to Syria’s Uncertain Future
[ 3 minutes to read] Ghasem Ghareh Daghi The fall of Bashar al-Assad, a man who ruled for over a decade…
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Quincy Jones’s music was the soundtrack to so many Black lives – and something we could be proud of
[ 3 minutes to read] There will be countless tributes to the revered producer, but for me he evokes happy days…
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The Voices Behind the Silence
[ 4 minutes to read] The terrestrial broadcast license of Açık Radyo*, which has been broadcasting in Turkey for 30 years…
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Can we help these freethinker asylum seekers help start their own business?
[ < 1 minute to read] When you don’t get support from a government as a refugee, surviving is hard without sponsors. A small business can help them survive.
In the shadows of ongoing displacement crises in regions like Afghanistan, Iran, Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen, Freethinkers International is spearheading a transformative concept. Traditionally dependent on the lengthy and uncertain asylum processes in neighboring countries, asylum seekers face not just a lack of safety but also a life of dependency. Our initiative aims to change this narrative by funding small businesses to foster sustainable empowerment.Asylum seekers often find themselves in precarious situations, such as trans individuals from Yemen facing years of limbo in Egypt, or Afghans in Turkey with slim chances of formal asylum approval. Yet, amidst these challenges lies a potent solution: entrepreneurship. With a starting investment ranging from $500 to $1,000, these brave souls can launch small businesses, turning their skills and passions into sources of sustainable income.
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The assassination of administrators of the website and publications of AvayeBuf
[ 10 minutes to read] The nature and cornerstone of the establishment AvayeBuf as a cultural group has started its enlightened political and social activities…
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Black Friday with a Purpose: Empower Persecuted Freethinkers
[ 2 minutes to read] As the Black Friday curtains rise, revealing a stage set for the annual shopping extravaganza, we…
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Turkey: Elections don’t win from the balcony
[ 3 minutes to read] I want your slavery and I don’t want you Illegal Immigrants or stateless workers? In the…
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Irrevocably Evil: Why Iranian society is secularizing itself from within
[ 8 minutes to read] It was the third day of protests in response to Mahsa Amini’s murder by Iranian police….
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Ilham’s world shaken by natural disaster #6
[ 3 minutes to read] The earthquake makes life for undercover ex-muslims even more difficult
March 2023 – When the earthquakes hit Turkey recently Ilham was struggling with illness and “didn’t even realize what was going” when his shaking building woke him up.
“I was sick and had a fever,” Ilham told SUN.
Asleep in his bed, ill, and confused with a fever, a natural disaster prevented him from leaving his eight-storey building. Ilham, a pseudonym to protect his real identity, is a 23-year-old Afghan refugee who has rejected Islam. He fled Afghanistan to escape his family and the brutal regime that would kill him for his lack of belief. Ilham had provided assistance to the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which made him even more of a target by the Taliban.
He stayed in his ground-floor apartment for a while but decided he should go out to see what happened. It was then that authorities told people to stay outside. Temperatures were below freezing in Tokat Province where Ilham lives. He got out of the building before the second earthquake hit.
“We had to stay outside the whole day. We were told not to enter buildings,” he said. He had a jacket to keep warm but his legs were freezing.
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#WhereIsSoheilArabi #FreeSoheil
[ < 1 minute to read] We, the undersigned freethought, ex-Muslim, atheist, and secularist organisations, have joined together to politically sponsor the…
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Ex-Muslim lives a secret life to stay alive – #5
[ 2 minutes to read] Ilham lives a lie every day of his life so he may stay alive and somehow achieve the freedom he so desperately desires. ”I have to pretend i am a Muslim”
October 2022 – “I have to pretend I am a Muslim to be able to have a place to stay,” Ilham told SUN in a recent interview. “I am living in one of the most conservative provinces in Turkey and the university I study (at) try to further pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism.”
Ilham, a pseudonym to protect his real identity, is an Afghan refugee in his early 20s who has rejected Islam. He fled Afghanistan to escape his family and the brutal regime that would kill him for his lack of belief.
He likens his daily life now to a form of psychological torture.
“I am suffering from extreme anxiety and trauma,” said Ilham. “Sometimes it really gets over me.”
While Turkey is “safer” than Afghanistan it is still an Islamic country that has little tolerance for those who don’t believe. “It’s better than Afghanistan but far from freedom,” he said.
So Ilham wraps himself up in the lie that he is a believer in order to survive his daily life in a small, conservative city.
“The landlord thinks I am a Muslim,” explained Ilham. “He has forbidden me from having a girlfriend in house or drinking.”
He constantly parries questions about why people haven’t seen him at the mosque or why he isn’t praying. Ilham gives excuses to them like he was sick (which he often is) or that they must have just missed him. -
Adopt a refugee for $3 per month
[ 3 minutes to read] Ever since I’ve been involved in helping freethinkers and those on the run for their convictions,…
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Ilham needs your support for health and school #4
[ 2 minutes to read] Update april 2022 – For 22-year-old Ilham he must always temper his dream of living in a free country with everyday life managing challenging health and economic realities in Turkey.
“A country where I wouldn’t have to think twice before saying what I want,” he mused in a recent conversation with SUN.
Ilham (not his real name but an alias to protect him) shares an apartment with friends in a small Turkish city where he goes to school. An atheist who fled his country of Afghanistan and violence against him from family and other true believers, Ilham struggles with making ends meet and a medical condition that adds to his woes. Add to that burden his broken heart over what has happened to his country since the West pulled out of Afghanistan last year.
“I have a rare medical condition,” Ilham explained. “It is when the immune system is overactive and mistakes healthy cells for infection and destroys them.”
No cure exists but there are treatments that relieve the symptoms.
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#FactsOnFriday: Who was the Father of the Turks? A primer on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
[ 4 minutes to read] War hero, reformer, enlightened leader, tyrant. The shape Mustafa Kemal Ataturk takes will always differ from…
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A massacre of dogs is happening now in Turkey, and the government is behind it
[ 2 minutes to read] I recently spoke to a Turkish friend and in our conversation she said something surprising. She…
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The daily horror show in Afghanistan
[ 2 minutes to read] While the horror story continues, the world has lost interest On the day the Taliban took…
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Secular Underground Network featured in Feedspot’s top 35 atheist blogs
[ < 1 minute to read] Feedspot is a media contact database. Recently, they contacted us to let us know that the…
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Ilham faces health challenges #3
[ 2 minutes to read] Update July 2021 – Health struggles and financial woes have sent this twenty-something atheist back to a small Turkish city after a move to Istanbul proved too costly. “Without school I can’t stay here and without proper health I won’t be able to study,” said Ilham, who suffers from insomnia, allergies, fatigue and issues with the intense Turkish summers (30 + Celsius with high humidity common all summer).
When the Secular Underground Network (SUN) touched base with Ilham in May he had just relocated to Istanbul in hopes of furthering his studies and finding physical safety from those who would harm him because of his atheism. But his health, living arrangements and costs in Istanbul made it difficult for him to continue there. The young Afghan can only stay in Turkey if he remains in school. He returned to the small university city where he first set foot after fleeing a dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Once again Ilham (not his real name to protect his safety) faces a conundrum. He needs to be healthy to study and he needs to study to stay.
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Even Turkey is not safe for ex-Muslims #2
[ < 1 minute to read] Update May 2021 – Ilham was forced to leave his job and move to Turkey where he enrolled in studies. But just recently he was overheard chatting about middle eastern politics when other students confronted Ilham and ganged up on him.
Ilham was slightly injured, but was able to escape back to his dorm room. The next day, he and his friends moved from the small university city to Istanbul with the help of IAA. Currently he is in a dorm with five others. It’s a place to rest his head but still he doesn’t feel safe.“It’s like being in hotel with prostitutes and drug dealers,” said Ilham. “But at least I don
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School, a Literal Lifesaver for Atheist on the run – Ilham from Afghanistan #1
[ 2 minutes to read] March 2021 – For many of us higher education is a choice to better ourselves. For Ilham it is a matter of life and death. Ilham, a young Afghan, is registered as a student at a university in a small city in Turkey. If he doesn’t continue his studies he loses his residency permit and will be deported to Afghanistan.
“That means death sentence,” explained Ilham in a recent conversation with IAA. “I would need to pay them and study or they will cancel my residence permit.”
Tuition for Ilham (an alias to protect his identity) is not just necessary for him to continue his studies but necessary to stay alive and away from people who wish to harm him because he is an atheist.
“I am an atheist activist type of person,” he said.As a young boy in Afghanistan Ilham came to question his beliefs. An abusive father started beating him from the age of 4. He didn’t understand why Allah would allow this type of abuse. Always a bright child, Ilham speaks Pashto (spoken in Afghanistan), Dari (sometimes called Afghan Persian) and English. His linguistic abilities got the attention of the U.S. government, which hired Ilham as a Linguist/Analyst for their operations in Afghanistan. This came crashing down late last year when Ilham admitted his atheist beliefs to his father. This resulted in a horrible physical interaction with is father that left Ilham badly injured. And then the Taliban found out about Ilham’s work for the U.S.
