Abdul Rahman, the convert to Christianity, who had been deemed an apostate and faced execution in ‘liberated’ Afghanistan, has been granted fast-track asylum, and spirited to Italy. We are told he will eventually be able to decide whether he will remain in Italy or move to Germany! Ahh, how nice of them. They are letting [...]

Thanks to all those who have asked about Reza Moradi and how they can help. We are now in the process of finding a solicitor and organising a campaign in his defence. We’ll need loads of help then. If you want to know a little bit more about what happened, see the upcoming TV International [...]

People fleeing political Islam must be given asylum, full stop. You may think that this statement is outrageous. Aren’t most of them ‘failed’, ‘illegals’, ‘scroungers’? Isn’t only a handful ‘genuine’? No, they all are genuine. And for the very simple reason that medieval Islamic laws are antithetical to 21st century lives and values. Let me [...]

Today, I took part in the Heaven and Earth TV Programme on BBC with Stephen Green of Christian Voice infamy. The bible-thumper (he had actually brought his bible with him) kept equating his religious belief with my demand for secularism and said basically that if one is to be imposed why not his ‘world view’ [...]

* In Iran, Tehran bus workers demanding their rights have been arrested, including their wives and children, and some tortured. * In Afghanistan, teachers defending the right of girls to an education are threatened with death. * In Iraq, women’s rights activists are threatened for demanding equality and freedom. * In Iran, journalists who published [...]

There has been much talk about my participation and that of others in the March for Free Expression which was held on March 25 in Trafalgar Square. Though much of it is quite absurd, some need commenting nonetheless. Let me first say that I find the criticism of being allied(!) with or even in coalition [...]

On the anniversary of the war on Iraq, we watch on our TV screens with complete disbelief and horror at the abyss that was once a country albeit a dictatorship. Though we always said this would happen, it is still so hard to believe that things can actually always get so much worse than we [...]

“Life without Fear” Public Meeting Islamic regime of Iran, political Islam and the right to asylum Tuesday 21st March 2006 6:00pm-9:00pm Conway Hall Lion Square London WC1R 4RL Speaker: Maryam Namazie Campaign for the rights of Iranian asylum seekers in the UK We urge you all to support and join “Life Without Fear” Campaign. Together [...]

Here’s an interview with the Persian Javanan Weekly on the Manifesto for your information. Javanan: You are one of the signatories to the Manifesto against Islamism; were you involved in drafting it? Maryam Namazie: I wasn’t involved in drafting the manifesto. I had initially refused to sign the manifesto because it mentioned the ‘excesses of [...]

Here’s the transcript of my interview with Danish TV. Thanks to Arash Sorx for transcribing it. Martin Breum: Welcome Maryam Namazie. We are in the middle of this cartoon crisis and then your manifesto calls for hard resistance against Islamism, why is that? Maryam Namazie: The reality is that Islamism is one of the great [...]

Here’s another post that needs mentioning. It’s by Abu Hurairah – ‘The Father of a Kitten’ no less who reminds his brethren that no fatwa is needed to kill those of us who signed on to the manifesto. He says: ‘Jezak’illah Ukthi, now we have drawn out a hit list of a ‘Who’s Who’ guide [...]

I thought I’d share some of the more interesting emails I have received regarding the caricatures (!?!): This one is from Bilal Mahmoud, a student in Denmark: “Salam Listen, you really must be crazy in re publishing those damned cartoons ! are you really that ignorant ? okay, maybe Iran has seen some cruel stuff, [...]

Thousands of women and men came out on to the streets or held meetings to commemorate International Women’s Day across Iran. Their slogans included: Down with Reaction, Down with Sexual Apartheid, Long Live Women’s Day, Long Live Women’s Freedom, Long Live March 8, We demand our human rights. Below are some pictures from the demonstration [...]

On International Women’s Day, we commemorate 23 year old Hatun, murdered in cold blood in Germany by her brothers for ‘dishonouring’ her family, for divorcing a man she was forced to marry at 16, for unveiling, and for dating German men. Some boys discussing her death put it clearly: ‘She deserved to die; the whore [...]

Azita Ebrahimi sent me her brilliant drawings saying no to compulsory veiling and sexual apartheid – they are a fitting commemoration of International Women’s Day:

If you can get yourself to Cologne, Germany, come to the March 8 conference in commemoration of International Women’s Day and against honour killings. For more details, see http://www.maryamnamazie.com/calendar/Einladung-English.pdf.

To see my interview with the Danish TV programme, Deadline, go to http://www.dr.dk/dr2/deadline2230/lordag.htm and scroll down the screen to the sixth paragraph and click on the following: Interview med Maryam Namazie, medunderskriver af Salman Rushdies manifest 22:33:20 (7:42) Midt i krisen over Jyllands-Postens tegniner af profeten Mohammed udsendte Salman Rushdie i ugen der gik sammen [...]

I am back from maternity leave and have begun TV International English programmes again. To view the weekly hour long programme broadcast throughout the Middle East and Europe from New Channel TV via satellite, click here. The programme focuses on issues pertaining to the Middle East from a left and progressive perspective. In this week’s [...]

Today, the following manifesto will be published in Charlie Hebdo, a French leftwing newspaper that had published the Mohammad caricatures. It has been signed by myself and 11 others, namely Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq, Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji, Mehdi Mozaffari, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val and Ibn Warraq. It [...]