Maryam Namazie

Maryam Namazie (born 1966) is a British-Iranian secularist, communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster.

She is the Spokesperson for Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

She is known for speaking out against Islam and Islamism and defending the right to apostasy and blasphemy.

Namazie was born in Tehran to Hushang and Mary Namazie, but left with her family in 1980 after the 1979 revolution in Iran.

She has subsequently lived in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where she began her university at the age of 17.

Most of her early work focused on refugee rights, especially in Sudan, Turkey, and Iran, and she has actively campaigned against sharia law.

Since 1982, there has been an Islamic Sharia Council in the United Kingdom, and Islamic sharia courts are allowed to adjudicate in familial matters (marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody of children) according to the Arbitration Act 1996.

Namazie campaigns against these issues under the name One law for all.

She deems sharia law is discriminatory and unjust, especially against women and children: "Rights and justice are meant for people, not for religions and cultures", said Namazie.

After a 1989 military coup when Islamic law was instituted in Sudan, her clandestine organisation in defence of human rights, Human Rights Without Frontiers, was discovered and she was threatened by Sudanese security and had to leave the country.

Back in the United States in 1990 she became the Founder of the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees (CHAIR).

In 1994 she worked with Iranian refugees in Turkey and produced a film about their situation.

Namazie was then elected Executive Director of the International

Federation of Iranian Refugees with branches in more than twenty countries.

She has led several campaigns, especially against human rights violations of refugees in Turkey.

He has also broadcast programmes via satellite television in English: TV International.

Namazie has had campaigned for secularism, and had criticized Islam in Iran and internationally including in Canada and Britain, where she currently lives.

In numerous articles and public statements she has challenged cultural relativism and political Islam.

Namazie became well known in the mid-2000s for her pro-secularism positions and her critique of the treatment of women under Islamic regimes.

These activities were recognised by the National Secular Society with the 2005 Secularist of the Year award, making him its first recipient.

During the Danish cartoon riots, she was one of the twelve signatories of Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism together with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq, Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji, Mehdi Mozaffari, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, and Ibn Warraq.

The manifesto begins thus: "After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism."

Namazie said in a 2006 interview that the response by the public "has been overwhelming. Many feel such a manifesto is extremely timely whilst of course there is the usual hate mail from Islamists."

Namazie believes Britain should ban the niqab, and women under 18 should be banned from wearing the hijab.

Maryam Namazie was also the spokesman of Fitnah- Movement for Women's Liberation, a protest movement which is, according to their website, "demanding freedom, equality, and secularism and calling for an end to misogynist cultural, religious, and moral laws and customs, compulsory veiling, sex apartheid, sex trafficking, and violence against women."

Namazie says that the name of the movement "fitna", is in defiance of the Islamic prophet Muhammad who, Namazie says, portrays women as a source of harm and affliction in a hadith.

She explains that even though the term is generally perceived as negative, the fact that women who are called fitnah are those who "are disobedient, who transgress the norms, who refuse, who resist, who revolt, who won't submit" makes it suited for a women's liberation movement.

She has explained that the creation of the movement was sparked by contemporary movements and revolutions around the world, especially those in the Middle East and North Africa, although she emphasizes Fitnah has global relevance.

Namazie has denounced the discrimination women have to endure under the Islamic regime: "From the very fact that you are a second-class citizen, even your testimony legally is worth half that of a man's, you get half what a boy does in inheritance if you are a girl. You have to be veiled if you're a girl or a woman, and there are certain fields of education or work that are closed to you because you're considered emotional."

She compares women's situation under Islamic regimes today to the social inequalities under apartheid in South Africa, and she cites as examples the existence of separate entrances for women into government offices and the separation of men and women on swimming areas in the Caspian Sea by a curtain.

After Mina Ahadi launched the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany in January 2007, Namazie became the co-founder of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) in June, and was involved in the founding of the Dutch branch in September: the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims, an initiative of Ehsan Jami.

The representatives of the three ex-Muslim councils signed a "European Declaration of Tolerance".

The rise of ex-Muslim organisations have been described by MEP Sophie in 't Veld as a "new Renaissance"; Namazie herself compared the breaking of taboos and the 'coming out' of Muslim apostates with the emancipation of homosexuals.

In February 2008, Namazie and Ahadi were selected among of the top 45 "Women of the Year 2007" by Elle Quebec for their role in the foundation of the ex-Muslim councils.

Namazie was named in Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities, a late 2008 report about 27 European public figures with an Islamic background that have been made the focus of terrorist attention on the basis of what they have said about issues such Islam, homosexuality or religious experience.

The action was launched on 10 December 2008 during the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Namazie has also spoken against cultural relativism in regards to human rights and equality, denouncing the fact that cultural relativism disregards violations of human rights and the oppression of women in countries ruled by Islamists, under the excuse that these actions are part of the culture of the countries where they occur.

Though the Dutch Committee for Ex-Muslims was dissolved in 2008, its British and German counterparts were reinforced with a French branch: by the initiative of Waleed Al-Husseini the Council of Ex-Muslims of France was founded on 6 July 2013, in which Namazie was again involved.

In 2015, her lectures were opposed by groups labeling her as too provocative.

Namazie first worked with Ethiopian refugees in Sudan.