24 Facts About Maryam Namazie

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

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

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

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

Maryam Namazie was then elected Executive Director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees with branches in more than twenty countries.

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

Maryam Namazie has broadcast programmes via satellite television in English: TV International.

Maryam Namazie has not limited her activism for secularism to her country of birth: she has campaigned internationally including in Canada, Britain, where she currently lives.

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

Maryam 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.

Maryam Namazie 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.

Maryam Namazie has 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.

Maryam Namazie has pointed out that she believes the greatest opponents of sharia law and Islamism are precisely people who have lived under its rule, and that no one should have lesser rights for having been born in the place where they were born.

Maryam Namazie said: ""Islamists and the religious right are obsessed with women's bodies.

Maryam Namazie emphasizes the difference between Muslims on the one hand, believers like any other, and Islamists on the other, who are dangerous because they form repressive political movements that have seized power in some countries.

Maryam Namazie argues that all religious Right movements are the same fundamentally.

Maryam Namazie 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.

Maryam Namazie 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.

Maryam Namazie is the spokesperson for One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

Maryam Namazie is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, and a patron of Pink Triangle Trust.

Maryam Namazie is involved with the International Committee against Stoning.

Maryam Namazie used to be a Central Committee member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran, as editor for the Worker-communist Review.

Maryam Namazie advocated ideas inspired by worker-communism, especially those of the Iranian theorist Mansoor Hekmat.

Maryam Namazie strongly condemned the far-right movements after the terrorist attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which took away 50 victims' lives, stating that "We stand with Muslims everywhere who face discrimination, violence and terror".