Farah Karimi

Farah Karimi
Farah Karimi in a seminar at Leiden University, 2013
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 1998–2006
Personal details
Born	(1960-11-15) 15 November 1960 (age 56) Hasanabad-E Yasukand Garros, Iran
Political party	GreenLeft
Children	one son
Residence	The Hague
Religion	Islam
Website	farahkarimi.nl

Farahnaz (Farah) Karimi (Persian: فرح کريمی‎‎; born 15 November 1960) is an Iranian-Dutch politician. She was member of the House of Representatives between 1998 and 2006 for GreenLeft.

Karimi was born in Iran. She attended the primary education and secondary education in Teheran between 1966 and 1978. In 1978 she went to the Isfahan University of Technology to study industrial design. From the age fifteen Karimi became interested in progressive interpretations of Islam of Shariati. Since her youth Karimi has been involved in resistance against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and struggled for democracy and human rights in Iran. Karimi saw the Iranian Revolution as moment to put a form of Islamic socialism into practice. Instead the Iranian revolution, brought, in Karimi's eyes, a conservative government into power.

In 1980 Karimi left the university to join the Mojahedin-e Khalgh, a left-Islamistic resistance movement against the Islamic government. For the Mojahedin-e Khalgh she worked on secretly listening to police communication. In 1983 she fled from Iran to Germany. In Germany she got political asylum. Between 1985 and 1986 Karimi worked for the Mojahedin-e Khalgh in Paris where she developed stories for members of resistance from Iran seeking refuge in France. In 1986 Karimi broke with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh. In her 2005 book The Secret of Fire Karimi describes her political development in her youth, her experiences with the Mojahedin-e Khalgh and her break with the organization. The Mojahedin-e Khalgh is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States of America. Karimi currently considers the organization a "criminal sect."