TAMPA - Imprisoned by the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, British journalist Yvonne Ridley brings a firsthand perspective to her lecture on "Media Manipulation and the War on Terror" tonight at the University of South Florida.
Disguised in an all-covering burqa, Ridley was on assignment for Britain's Sunday Express, traveling into Afghanistan at the end of September 2001, when she was discovered by the Taliban. After 10 days of captivity, she was released on a condition she made with her captors that she study Islam.
That experience proved a catalyst to Ridley, who subsequently converted to Islam and is now a peace activist. She has written two books, In the Hands of the Taliban and Ticket to Paradise.
Ridley's Florida tour is sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose mission is to present an Islamic perspective on issues.
The lecture is at 6:30 p.m. today in Room 1048 of the CIS building, next to the library at USF.
