Farah Karimi

Farahnaz "Farah" Karimi (born 15 November 1960 in Hassanabad Yasukand, garuss) is an Iranian-Dutch politician.

She received primary education and secondary education in Tehran between 1966 and 1978.

In 1978 she went to the Isfahan University of Technology to study industrial design.

From the age of fifteen, Karimi became interested in progressive interpretations of Islam and Ali Shariati.

Since her youth, Karimi has been involved in the resistance against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and campaigned for democracy and human rights in Iran.

Karimi saw the Iranian Revolution as moment to put a form of Islamic socialism into practice.

Instead the Iranian revolution brought a conservative religious government into power.

In 1980, Karimi left the university to join the Mojahedin-e Khalgh, a left-Islamistic resistance movement against the Islamic Republic government.

In 1983 she fled from Iran to Germany, where she was granted political asylum.

Between 1983 and 1988 Karimi was active in different refugee groups in Germany and France.

In Hamburg, Germany, Karimi attended a college for foreign students in 1985.

In 1986 Karimi broke with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh.

Between 1986 and 1988 mathematics and information science at University of Kiel.

In 1989, Karimi went to the Netherlands with her family.

At the University of Groningen, Karimi studied "International Relations and International Organizations".

She also obtained the Dutch nationality.

Between 1991 and 2001, she was member of the Board of Vluchtelingenorganisaties Nederland.

In 1993, Karimi began to work in the semi-public sector.

Between 1993 and 1994, she began to work for the foundation Probe in Hoogezand-Sappemeer.

Since 1994, she worked as a coordinator for Aisa, a project for the emancipation and support of black, migrant and refugee women.

In 1997, she became a member of GreenLeft.

She was a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands between 1998 and 2006 for GreenLeft.

In April 1998, she became a board member of GreenLeft.

In 1998 she was a national project leader for "Heel de Buurt" of the Dutch Institute for Care and Welfare.

Karimi was also active in civil society.

In the 1998 elections Karimi was elected to the House of Representatives for GreenLeft.

In the House of Representatives, she was involved in the foreign affairs, development cooperation, European affairs and defense.

As such, she was vice chair of the permanent committee for European Affairs.

She also was member of the committee for justice.

In 1999 she was one of two MPs (the other one was Ineke van Gent) who voted in favour of a motion of Harry van Bommel to end the NATO bombings which were part of the Kosovo War.

In 2003, she proposed, together with Niesco Dubbelboer of the PvdA and Boris van der Ham of the D66, to hold a referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

This was accepted by the House of Representatives at the end of 2004.

In her 2005 book The Secret of Fire Karimi describes her political development in her youth, her experiences with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh and her break with the organization.

The proposal became law in 2005.

She also questioned the Minister Jozias van Aartsen on the American Service-Members' Protection Act, which obliges the American government to free American citizens who are brought to the International Criminal Court in The Hague -even with the use of violence- and Minister Ben Bot on the Dutch support for the Iraq War.

She also took an initiative to support free Iranian Media, Rooz and Radio Zamaneh, with 15 million euro.

Karimi did not put herself forward as a candidate in the 2006 elections.

Karimi was the Executive Director of Oxfam Novib until 2018.

Since 2019 she has been a Senator for GreenLeft.

Karimi was born in Iran.