Maryam Namazie

Maryam Namazie is a political activist, campaigner and blogger

Tag: women

  • Celebrating Dissent Oslo, A Landmark Event

    Celebrating Dissent Oslo, A Landmark Event

    Celebrating Dissent Oslo, held during 31 August – 1 September 2024, was a resounding success. The event organised by Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) and Dømmekraft focused on blasphemous women and paid homage to Shabana Rehman, the late Norwegian ex-Muslim of Pakistani descent, who was a taboo-breaking comedian and activist. In his tribute, which…

  • Brave Women for 2022: Maryam Namazie on Blasphemous Women

    Brave Women for 2022: Maryam Namazie on Blasphemous Women

    Maryam Namazie speaking on Blasphemous Women on 13 June 2022 at Brave Women for 2022 talk organised by Center for Civil Courage from Croatia and Women’s Solidarity from Serbia. Brave Women for 2022 presents courageous women from all over the world whose thoughts and deeds encourage us every day in our struggle for women’s liberation.…

  • De Balie #CelebratingDissent Festival was an Astounding Success

    De Balie #CelebratingDissent Festival was an Astounding Success

    The epic ‘Celebrating Dissent’ Festival took place between 30 August -1 September in Amsterdam, a collaboration between the prestigious art and debate institute De Balie and Maryam Namazie. Consisting of a mixture of intense, probing conversations, comedy, art, poetry and dance performances, films, lectures and protest, the weekend was an education in the issues facing…

  • Secularism is my right; freedom is my culture سكولاريسم حق من؛ آزادى فرهنگ من

    Secularism is my right; freedom is my culture سكولاريسم حق من؛ آزادى فرهنگ من

    Secularism is my right; freedom is my culture سكولاريسم حق من؛ آزادى فرهنگ من Maryam Namazie’s Freedom Lecture at De Balie, Amsterdam سخنرانى مريم نمازى در ده بالى آمستردام

  • Religion is fundamentally patriarchal and anti-woman

    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…

  • On 8 March, International Women’s Day: Fuck modesty

    On 8 March, International Women’s Day: Fuck modesty

    My latest piece in The Freethinker to mark International Women’s Day. Wherever Islamism gains power and influence, it comes for women first. And it’s always a sign of worse to come, hence the saying: ‘the freedom of society is measured by the freedom of women.’ Islamism but also the Christian-Right, Buddhist-Right,  Jewish-Right,  Hindu-Right, Sikh-Right ……

  • Do sharia courts discriminate against women?

    Do sharia courts discriminate against women?

    The accommodation of arbitration systems to govern private and family matters had led, arguably, to the greatest human rights violations of minority women in the UK. An open letter by an unprecedented number of women’s rights campaigners and organisations raised serious concerns about a government inquiry into the courts and called it a whitewash. See…

  • Secularism is the way to defend women’s rights

    Secularism is the way to defend women’s rights

    My opening remarks on Women in Islam in a discussion with Tehmina Kazi of British Muslims for Secular Democracy at AHS University Of Birmingham conference on Religion in 21 Century. Women in Islam have no rights. It’s the same in any religion. Even if was “progressive” for its time – which I don’t buy –…

  • We are all Farkhunda

    The below is a shortened version of my speech at Marea Feminist Review and Consulta Torinese per la Laicita public events in Genoa and Turin, Italy during 27-30 March 2015. Today, we are all Farkhunda. You know her by now – a 27 year old woman accused by a mullah of being an “infidel” who…

  • Reyhaneh Jabbari was executed

    They killed Reyhaneh on October 25 – a day of international protest against the throwing of acid on women in Iran for “bad veiling”. Reyhaneh lives on in all those fighting against the vile Islamic regime of Iran. Despite huge amounts of security, her funeral was held yesterday on 26 October. Here is footage of…