Category: Notes
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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!
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Identity politics and the art of deception
One of the things that is most troubling about identity politics and multiculturalism as a social policy is how deception becomes a necessity in defending the “tribe” or “community”, irrespective of the truth. Of course you don’t need to be an Islamist or on the far-Right to do this – something Sam Harris fans fail…
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A Response to Tariq Modood: We need less religion, not more, in the public space
Below are my opening remarks during a conversation with Sociologist Tariq Modood at Westminster University on Secularism and Diversity on 24 February 2017 organised by the University’s Secular Adviser, Isabel Millar. The event went ahead as planned even though Jihadi John’s Islamic Society tried but abysmally failed to “disinvite” me. Which goes to show once…
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More restrictions at universities and words of warning
According to a recent report, more than nine in 10 UK universities are restrictive of free speech. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I continue to face restrictions of varying degrees, though this is changing due to the widespread push-back in defence of free expression. Nowadays, I find that universities don’t bar me outright as…
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Common humanity should be at the core of our politics
The below is my monthly column for The Freethinker published on 19 February. You can read it there too: Common humanity should be at the core of our politics too. I was born in Iran; I am a migrant, a refugee. But I am not the “authentic other” that xenophobes love to hate nor am I the…