Nahla Mahmoud

Nahla Mahmoud
Nahla Mahmoud speaking at the Secular Conference 2014.
Born	1986/1987 (age 30–31) Sudan
Nationality	British
Education	Ecology
Alma mater	University of Khartoum
Occupation	Spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
Known for	Human rights activism

Nahla Mahmoud (born 1986/7) is a Sudanese-born British writer, ex-Muslim, secularist, environmentalist, and human rights activist, and spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. She fled to the United Kingdom in 2010.

Mahmoud was born in Sudan and raised as a Sunni Muslim. In primary school art class, she drew a picture of Allah, which is considered forbidden by most Muslims, and her teacher punished her for it. Mahmoud was disgruntled by the fact that she did not enjoy the same rights as boys and men, that she couldn't draw or sculpt what she wanted, or keep a dog as a pet, that she was not allowed to ask critical questions, and that she could not learn about evolution.

Mahmoud studied ecology at the University of Khartoum, and worked for the Science Students Association. At university she came across a professor who opposed the Omar al-Bashir regime; he had just been released from jail where he had been tortured for teaching the theory of evolution. This revelation shocked her and made her feel like she 'didn't exist in Sudan as woman, as a scientist'. “These incidents made me gradually refuse Islam until I completely renounced it and became an atheist.” This made life even more difficult for her, because under Sudanese law, apostasy could be punishable by the death penalty. Mahmoud resolved that she no longer wanted to live under Sharia in Sudan, and eventually fled to the UK in 2010.

Mahmoud became a spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB). In this capacity she appeared in a short (1 minute, 39 seconds) televised interview on Channel 4's 4thought.tv in January 2013 to give her perspective on "What does Sharia law have to offer Britain?". She recounted how she grew up living under Sharia in Sudan, where she was ‘always dealt with as a second-class citizen, always brought up to believe that I am an incomplete human being [who] needed a man as a guard.’ Mahmoud found it astonishing that Britain, the country she had fled to to escape Islamic rule, maintained a similar system of sharia courts, arguing that ‘Everyone should have equal rights and live under one secular law.’ This interview led her to be targeted by an Islamist hate campaign, led by Salah Al Bander, director of the Sudan Civic Foundation and a former LibDem councillor in Cambridge City Council, who called Mahmoud a ‘Kafira’ (unbeliever) on a Sudanese Arabic website. He stated that ‘I will not forgive anyone who wants to start a battle against Islam and the beliefs of the people’. When mosques and Sudanese newspapers took up the campaign against her, Mahmoud received numerous death threats and both she and her family in Sudan were harassed; her brother over there was physically attacked. Even the official Facebook page of the Sudanese Armed Forces called Mahmoud an infidel and apostate. The local LibDem leader, Spencer Hagard, who investigated Al Bander, saw no fault in his behaviour, and even regarded him more highly than before. Mahmoud filed a complaint with the police, but received no protection, and instead got the suggestion to keep quiet about her views.