Maryam Namazie

Maryam Namazie
Maryam Namazie in a June 2014 episode of a magazine show Bread and Roses
Born	Tehran
Nationality	Iran
Occupation	Central Committee member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran
Known for	Human rights activism

Maryam Namazie (Persian: مریم نمازی) (born 1966) is an Iranian-born secularist and human rights activist, commentator and broadcaster. She is spokesperson for Iran Solidarity, One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

Namazie was born in Tehran, but left with her family in 1980 after the 1979 revolution in Iran. She has subsequently lived in India, the United Kingdom and the United States, where she began her studies at the age of 17.

Specialised in international solidarity, Namazie first worked with Ethiopian refugees in Sudan. During the Islamic Revolution in that country, her clandestine organisation in defence of human rights, Human Rights Without Frontiers, was discovered and prohibited. Back in the United States in 1991 she became the co-founder of the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees (CHAIR). In 1994 she worked in Iranian refugee camps in Turkey and produced a film about their situation. Namazie was then elected Executive Director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees with branches in more than twenty countries. She has led several campaigns, especially against human rights violations of refugees in Turkey, and is involved with the International Committee against Stoning. Namazie is also a spokesperson for Equal Rights Now - Organisation Against Women's Discrimination in Iran, that serves to defend women's rights and the struggle against "sexual apartheid" in Iran. Namazie has also broadcast programmes via satellite television in English: TV International.

Namazie has not limited her activism for secularism to her country of birth: she has also campaigned in Canada and Britain, where she currently lives. She has, by writing numerous articles and making public statements, specialised into challenging cultural relativism and political Islam. These activities were recognised by the National Secular Society with the 2005 Secularist of the Year award, making Namazie its first recipient. During the Danish cartoon riots, she was also part of the twelve signers of Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism together with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, , Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji, , Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, and Ibn Warraq. The manifesto starts as follows: "After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism." Namazie said in a 2006 interview that the response by the public 'has been overwhelming. Many feel such a manifesto is extremely timely whilst of course there is the usual hate mail from Islamists.'