Category: Notes
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No Hijab Day, 1 February: Confronting Misogyny
As a challenge to World Hijab Day on 1 February, No Hijab Day aims to confront the dominant narrative that packages the hijab as a symbol of women’s ‘empowerment’ and ‘choice’ and any opposition to it as ‘Islamophobia’. On the day, Ex-Muslims International, a coalition of ex-Muslim groups and activists, is calling on women to remove their hijab…
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Thank you Charlie Hebdo
The right to blasphemy, a cornerstone of free expression and democratic societies, is a universal human right and demand. It is not limited to or dependant on one’s ‘identity’ or lottery of birth. In fact, it matters most to those living under totalitarian and theocratic states. In many countries under the hold of theocrats, like…
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Feminism and religion are incompatible
Read full piece in The Freethinker: Feminism and religion are incompatible, 19 November 2024 This is an edited version of Maryam Namazie’s contribution to a Cambridge Union debate: ‘This House Believes Feminism is Incompatible with Religion’, held on 14 November 2024. Others speaking in Proposition: Phyllis Zagano, Annie Laurie Gaylor, and Pollyanna Greene Wright. Those…
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Confronting identity politics, a breeding ground for division and dehumanisation
This is an edited version of Maryam Namazie’s keynote address made at the National Secular Society conference on 19 October 2024. I know identity politics well. Criticise Islam and Islamism, you are deemed an ‘Islamophobe’ by Islamists and their apologists on the pro-Islamist Left. Defend Muslims, refugees, and migrants and you are deemed to be…
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Being a woman is in and of itself and act of blasphemy
Blasphemy – and of course apostasy, heresy, enmity against god – are portrayed negatively and always from the perspective of the religious. The religious view is the default view. Blasphemy is therefore, seen to be at best offensive and hurtful. At worst it is seen to be a danger to national security, morality, stability of…
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Aisan Eslami: Not Your Fucking Honour
A video is circulating of Aisan Eslami, an ‘Influencer’ who lives in the USA with millions of followers, promoting the ‘honour’-killing of an Iranian women Simin Pourmehr on social media for her saying that one could go on holiday with the money it costs to go out for one night in Dubai. It’s a masterclass…
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Azar Majedi and Homa Arjomand’s Islamist Propaganda and Morality
By Maryam Namazie Azar Majedi and Homa Arjomand’s recent criticisms of feminists, secularists and ex-Muslims under the guise of defending the Palestinian people are worrying given their use of Islamist and pro-Islamist Left propaganda. Their statement ‘Genocide in Gaza: Where does the Women’s Rights Movement stand?’ rightly condemns genocide but has not one word condemning…
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Iran: Revolution not Reform
Iran: Unica Soluzione, rivoluzione, Psiche, Issue 2/2023 ABSTRACT: The article critically examines Bahareh Hedayat’s open letter from Evin prison written in December 2022. The letter reveals a paradigm shift with respect to the so-called reformist movement – from working within the confines of a theocratic state to calling for its complete overthrow by revolutionary means.…
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There are no rights in Islam, Maryam Namazie’s remarks in Durham and Berlin
See Maryam’s opening remarks at Durham University Union: Islam is not compatible with human rights Watch Maryam’s opening remarks at WBZ Berlin Social Science Centre: There is no women’s rights in Islam
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Unveiled and Unbroken, Woman’s Revolution in Iran, Queer Majority, 18 February 2023
Unveiled and Unbroken, Woman’s Revolution in Iran, Queer Majority, 18 February 2023 When Mahsa Amini was dragged off last year to undergo “re-education” for “improper” veiling, it was business as usual for Iran’s Islamic morality police, which harasses, imprisons, and brutalises thousands of women every year. But Amini wasn’t merely arrested and tortured. She was killed. Her murder became…
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Online crimes of harassment, threats and incitement to violence
21 November 2022 Commander Richard Smith Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2JL RE: Reporting online crimes of harassment, threats and incitement to violence I, Maryam Namazie, an Iranian-born writer and campaigner have been facing a barrage of threats and incitement to violence for over two months. There are hundreds, if not…
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Defending Secularism is the task of the Left
Defending Secularism is the task of the Left, first published in Spanish and Catalan in An Inclusive Secularism for a Diverse Society, Ferrer Guàrdia Report, 23 November 2022. English can be found here. Defending Secularism is the task of the Left Maryam Namazie Secularism is an important principle and fundamental human right. By secularism, I…