Maryam namazie biography of georgetown

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1966, Maryam Namazie ranks 536. This, exactly this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why Maryam Namazie receives the SAPIO award from IBKA.

Maryam, it is my pleasure to be the one giving this speech, because I appreciate you but there is another thing I would like to mention, to question.

Her firsthand experiences with oppression fueled her passion for human rights advocacy.

Namazie is currently the spokesperson for:

• One Law for All, an organization opposing Sharia law in the UK.
• Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, supporting individuals who have left Islam.
• Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, a campaign advocating for women’s rights in Islamic contexts.

Through these platforms, Namazie has become a leading voice for secularism and human rights.

Advocating for Secularism

Namazie is best known for her staunch opposition to political Islam and religious laws that oppress women and minorities.

In 2019, the Islamic regime’s intelligence service did a TV programme, where Namazie was featured as “anti-God”. Many feel such a manifesto is extremely timely whilst of course there is the usual hate mail from Islamists.'

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.

In his 2020 book “Leaving the Allah Delusion Behind: Atheism and Freethought in Islam,” Ibn Warraq documents atheism in Islam and the rising ex-Muslim movement. She has also fought against stoning laws and defended refugee rights, amongst others.

The Islamic regime of Iran’s media outlets has called Namazie ‘immoral, a harlot and corrupt’ and did an ‘exposé’ on her entitled Meet this anti-religion woman.

Quran is not a book of prayer but Quran comprises the Islamic law.

But today the evening belongs to Maryam Namazie. Namazie has faced many attempts at censorship, including by Warwick University Student Union and Goldsmith Islamic Society. In an interview with the Coventry Telegraph's Simon Gilbert, she was quoted as saying: "It angers me that we’re all put in a little box and that anyone who criticises Islam is labelled racist.

Before her are Ellen van Langen, Rik Smits, Igor Konashenkov, Li Lingjuan, David Diop, and Edie Brickell. Before her are Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei (1899), Mahmoud Taleghani (1911), Nasrin Sotoudeh (1963), Massoud Rajavi (1948), Mina Ahadi (1956), and Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (1967). She is the Spokesperson for Fitnah – Movement for Women’s Liberation, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

These activities were recognised by the National Secular Society with the 2005 Secularist of the Year award, making Namazie its first recipient. Also and especially where collective rights are played off against individual rights in the name of anti-racism and identity politics.

According to its statutes, IBKA stands up for the assertion of individual self-determination against outdated traditions as well as religious and ideological norms.

Unfortunately, there are examples like Ferda Ataman, the federal government’s so-called Antidiscrimination-Representative, who apparently did not succeed in doing the same thing. She was threatened by the government for establishing a clandestine human rights organisation and had to be evacuated by her employer for her own safety.

Back in the United States, Maryam worked for various refugee and human rights organisations.

She is fighting for our human rights. This by no means only concerns Islam. With Ex-Muslims International, she has organised Apostasy Day and Atheist Day.  She is also the instigator and organiser of Celebrating Dissent, the largest gatherings of ex-Muslims in history, including in 2017 in London,  2019 in Amsterdam at De Balie, in Cologne 2022, for which she was interviewed by Charlie Hebdo, and CDOslo2024.

She has led topless protests at Pride London in defence of LGBT rights; taken part in a nude protest in defence of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa.