Category: Notes
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Commemorating Yanar Mohammed
On 1 March 2026, the day before she was killed, Yanar Mohammed called for accountability for sex trafficking and for ISIS crimes against women at a conference in Baghdad. The next morning, on 2 March, she was assassinated at her home. Part of her human-centred politics was a rejection of the false choice between external…
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Interview with Maryam Namazie on Iran’s Revolution in the Shadow of War
French translation: La révolution sociale iranienne à l’ombre de la guerre, Imprecor In this interview, Maryam Namazie argues that the central conflict in Iran is not a proxy war between states but a social struggle between the Islamic Republic and Iranian society. She situates the 2025–2026 protests within decades of uprisings and highlights the role…
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Iran: Between Bombs and Theocracy
In this compilation of various interviews for WBAI NYC Radio, BBC 5 Live, and Times Radio, which has been edited for clarity, Maryam Namazie argues that the real struggle in Iran is not between rival powers but between authoritarianism and the people who refuse to live under it. First published: Iran: Between Bombs and Theocracy, The Freethinker, 10…
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Women’s Blasphemy and the State
Blasphemous. Corrupt. Apostate. Kafir. These words are always defined from the perspective of the religious. The religious lens is treated as neutral, as default. Blasphemy is assumed to be harm, at best offensive, at worst a threat to morality, stability, and even national security. I have lost count of how many times I have been…
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World Hijab Day and the Political Alchemy of Turning Coercion into Choice
Maryam Namazie French: La Journée mondiale du hijab et l’alchimie politique qui transforme la coercition en choix Every year on 1 February, World Hijab Day invites women, primarily those whose refusal carries no consequence, to wear a hijab for a day. This invitation is framed as empathy: an opportunity to understand and affirm tolerance. In…
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Iran: On Power, Inheritance, and the Disciplining of Women’s Bodies
Iran: On Power, Inheritance, and the Disciplining of Women’s Bodies, The Freethinker, 25 January 2026 Farsi: ایران: دربارهٔ قدرت، حکومت موروثی، و کنترل بدنهای زنان This essay responds to critics of my 12 January 2026 Freethinker article Neither turban nor crown but Woman, Life, Freedom and of the FEMEN topless protest in Paris, during which photos of Ali Khamenei and Reza…
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After 100 years of dictatorship, people in Iran have a right to decide their own fate, Interview with Times Radio
This is an edited transcript of Rod Liddle’s interview with Maryam Namazie on Iran protests, Times Radio, 17 January 2026 Persian Translation: مصاحبه با رادیو تایمز: پس از ۱۰۰ سال دیکتاتوری، مردم ایران حق دارند سرنوشت خود را تعیین کنند Rod Liddle: The uprising or revolution whatever you want to call it in Iran seems…
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Iran: The generation that broke faith with theocracy
First published by the National Secular Society. British-Iranian secularist and human rights activist Maryam Namazie explains why the Iran protests are different this time – and why young Iranians are embracing secularism. The people of Iran are in open revolt. Since late December 2025, protests have erupted across the country in 73 cities. They rapidly…
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Neither turban nor crown but Woman, Life, Freedom
Persian: نه به عمامه و نه به تاج French: Ni turban ni couronne, mais Femme, Vie, Liberté Italian: Né turbante, né corona, ma Donna, Vita, Libertà Greek: Ιράν: Ούτε τουρμπάνι ούτε στέμμα! Ούτε κληρικός ούτε βασιλιάς! Γυναίκα, Ζωή, Ελευθερία Russian: Ни тюрбана, ни короны – Женщина, жизнь, свобода! A new nationwide wave of protest has…
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On Israel, Hamas, and Refusing the Binary
Reflections on the 2025 FiLiA Conference and Fringe Event Controversy On Israel, Hamas and Refusing the Binary, first published in The Freethinker on 9 December 2025 In French: Israël, le Hamas et le refus du binaire, Entre les lignes entre les mots Maryam Namazie spoke about the undoubted harm that militaristic, Islamic organisations such as…
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Abortion and Bodily Autonomy: Restriction, Repression, and Feminist Fightback
This is the amended text of a speech given by me at the International Conference on Science for Choice, held in Split, Croatia, on 27 September 2025. I spoke in place of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, who has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison in Morocco for wearing, in London, a t-shirt stating…
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For Mahsa Jina Amini and Woman, Life, Freedom: Summoning an Age of Humanity in an Age of Hate
This is the slightly amended text of a speech given on 14 September 2025 at a commemorative event for Mahsa Jina Amini in London organised by Jiyan Women’s Assembly. It was first published in The Freethinker on 16 September 2025. We live in what feels like the worst of times, an Age of Hate that conspires against…