YAHNA: Maryam Namazie [View all]

[Warren Stupidity]

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.[2][10] 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, Shahla Chafiq, Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji, Mehdi Mozaffari, 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."[11] 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.'[12]

Namazie has denounced the discrimination women have to endure under the Islamic regime: “From the very fact that you are a second-class citizen, even your testimony legally is worth half that of a man's, you get half what a boy does in inheritance if you are a girl. You have to be veiled if you're a girl or a woman, and there are certain fields of education or work that are closed to you because you're considered emotional.”[13] She compares women's situation under Islamic regimes today to the social inequalities under the apartheid in South Africa, and she cites as examples the existence of separate entrances for women into government offices and the separation of men and women on swimming areas in the Caspian Sea by a curtain.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Namazie

Funny how when it is time to Bash Those Horrible New Atheists, her name never comes up.