Category: Notes
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Fighting against Islam and Islamism
Here is my speech at the 40th Freedom from Religion Foundation Convention in Madison, WI during 15-17 September whilst receiving the Henry H. Zumach Freedom From Religious Fundamentalism award:
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Pride parade in Vancouver rejects Iranian over veil float
The below piece was first published in The Freethinker. Iranian Shawn Shirazi and his group Cirque de So Gay were denied entry to the Pride Parade in Vancouver, Canada this year because their float criticising the veil was deemed to be ‘culturally [in]sensitive’. In the application for Cirque de So Gay, he wrote: Our entry in the…
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Pride has the chance to do the right thing
28 July 2017 Michael Salter-Church Alison Camps Co-Chairs – Pride in London Dear Michael Salter-Church and Alison Camps Thank you for your letter dated 21 July addressed to CEMB (available below). The crux of the issue, which you have failed to recognise, is this: Pride in London has taken complaints against the Council of Ex-Muslims…
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Your beliefs are not more important than mine
I’m getting lots of these Facebook messages in messenger (in addition to all the other charming ones from sensitive souls who are so hurt by women’s bodies and criticism of Islam that they have no more sensitivity left in them for murder and mayhem.) Let me respond here en masse: I find your religion offensive,…
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In Toronto LGBT Iranians were branded as ‘Islamophobes’
My latest piece in The Freethinker. At Toronto Pride on June 25 some ‘anti-fascists’ surrounded Iranian refugees and LGBTQ activists and absurdly chanted ‘No Hate at Pride’ – as if defending LGBTQ people in Iran or countries under Islamic rule is ‘hateful’. Police intervention ensured that they weren’t able to stop the Iranians from joining…
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No Apologies
This is my letter to you, not you the racist or Islamist but you who I should call friend: I Accuse. Published in sister-hood, 27 June 2017. Spanish Translation This is my letter to you. Not you, the Islamist, who wants me silent or dead whilst dreaming of your vile caliphate, nor you, the racist,…
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Islamists want their terrorism to become the new normal
This month’s piece in The Freethinker. Since 1 June – that’s one week – there have been 25 terrorist attacks, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia and the UK. The latest took place today in Iran. Islamists want their terrorism to become the new normal. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, women sex slaves…
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Religion is fundamentally patriarchal and anti-woman
Below is my monthly column for The Freethinker entitled: Religion is fundamentally patriarchal and anti-woman, 25 May 2016 As US suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton once said: You may go over the world and you will find that every form of religion which has breathed upon this earth has degraded woman. In one Hadith, Mohammed, Islam’s prophet…
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Islam and Islamism as the greatest stumbling blocks for women’s emancipation
Our spokesperson, Maryam Namazie, was invited by Dabran Platform to speak at the Founding Congress of Enlightenment Feminism in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan (photos below). She spoke about Islam and Islamism as the greatest stumbling blocks for women’s emancipation and how Islamists target women and girls first – whether in Tehran, Peshawar or Manchester. Here’s her speech: Islam…
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Sayeeda Warsi’s Blinkered View of Islamism
LifestyleBooks The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain by Sayeeda Warsi – review A blinkered view of Islamism, says Maryam Namazie Evening Standard 6 April 2016 Sayeeda Warsi’s new book catalogues some of the hypocrisy and double standards of the British Government, the rise of the far-Right and bigotry against Muslims, yet has a…
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در ٨ مارس٬ روز جهانى زن٬ فاك حجب و حيا
هر گاه كه اسلاميون به قدرت ميرسند، ابتدا سراغ زنان مى آيند و اين نشانه اى است از تخريب اوضاع؛ از اينرو كه معيار آزادى هر جامعه اى آزادى زنان است۔ اسلاميون و همچنان تمامى راست مذهبى ها، ضديت با زن را تا سطح يك هنر ارتقاء داده اند! آواز خوانى در اماكن عمومى، بلند…
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Free expression and safe spaces
Here is a video of the frank panel discussion on free expression and safe spaces that took place at Centre for Inquiry’s Women in Secularism 4 conference in September 2016 with myself, Sarah Haidar, Melanie Brewster, and Diane Burkholder and moderated by Ashley F. Miller. Enjoy!