Yvonne Ridley

Yvonne Ridley is a British journalist who was a chair of the National Council of the now-defunct Respect Party. She was captured by the Taliban in 2001. She later converted to Islam. She is a vocal supporter of Palestine, which she took up as a schoolgirl. She is an avid critic of Zionism and of Western media portrayals and foreign policy in the War on Terror, and has undertaken speaking tours throughout the Muslim world as well as America, Europe and Australia. She has been called "something close to a celebrity in the Islamic world" by the journalist Rachel Cooke, and in 2008 was voted the "most recognisable woman in the Islamic world" by Islam Online.