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Join us on 7 February for a
day-conference on Sharia
Law, Apostasy and Secularism
in London. Speakers and
attendees will discuss the
Law Society win, the
struggle against Islamism
and the religious-Right, and
the ongoing campaigns for
secularism, equality, and
civil rights.
The conference will include
panel discussions and
speeches on the situation of
ex-Muslims in Britain and
internationally, Apostasy
and Blasphemy Laws, Islamism
and the religious-Right,
Sharia in the Law,
Educational System and
Public Policy, as well as
the Veil and Burqa. Speakers
will discuss the successful
campaigns against the Law
Society and Universities UK
and how the fight for equal
rights and an end to
discrimination against
ex-Muslims are integral to
the urgent fight against
Islamism and the
religious-Right and for a
secular society.
Click here for more
information and
registration.
Speakers' Biographies
Ahmed Idris
is an aspiring
journalist who has worked
with senior politicians
(including Lynne
Featherstone MP and Diane
Abbott MP); researched for
think-tanks (including the
Royal Institute for
International Affairs);
contributed to media
publications (including
Think Africa Press) and is
currently an active member
of the Liberal Democrats,
One Law for All and Council
of Ex-Muslims of Britain. He
holds a BSc in Law from
University of East London.
Aliyah Saleem
spent 6 years in an
Islamic school in Britain
and 1 year in Pakistan. In
Britain, she was veiled,
prohibited from using a
camera and mobile phone. She
was expelled when a camera
was confiscated during a
surprise room check and
revealed an unveiled photo
of herself. The experience
traumatised her and she now
campaigns for secular
education for all.
Amal Farah
is Spokesperson for
the Council of Ex-Muslims of
Britain and One Law for All.
She is Somali-born and was
raised in a conservative and
literalist Muslim household.
Her story was covered in the
Telegraph: “I renounced
Islam, so my family think I
should die” and the
Independent: “Allah vs
atheism: ‘Leaving Islam was
the hardest thing I’ve
done’”.
Atoosa Khatiri
is an aspiring
solicitor, with experience
of human rights and medical
law. She is an active member
of One Law for All and
Council of Ex-Muslims of
Britain, and co-author of
the report Political and
Legal Status of Apostates in
Islam. She holds a BSc in
Law from the University of
East London and postgraduate
degree from Nottingham Law
School.
Chris Moos
is a secular
student activist. After
getting harassed and
threatened with physical
removal by his university he
has led a successful
campaign for the right to
wear ‘Jesus and Mo’
t-shirts, and co-organised
the campaign against gender
segregation, as well as the
campaign in support of
Maajid Nawaz, all of which
received national news
coverage. Chris was a
nominee for the Secularist
of the Year 2014 award.
Gita Sahgal
is an Indian-born
writer, journalist,
film-maker and rights
activist. She is currently
Director of Centre for
Secular Space, and a
co-founder and active member
of Southall Black Sisters
and Women against
Fundamentalism. In February
2010, she was suspended by
Amnesty International as
head of its Gender Unit
after she was quoted
criticizing Amnesty for its
high-profile associations
with Moazzam Begg, the
director of a campaign group
called Cageprisoners.
Imad Iddine Habib
is a Moroccan
atheist threatened for his
atheism. He is founder of
the Council of Ex-Muslims of
Morocco, the first public
atheist organisation in a
country with Islam as the
state religion. The Council
of Ex-Muslims of Britain
declared May 15
“International Imad Day” in
order to galvanise support
for his case. His case was
also highlighted in a 2013
CEMB report on the political
and legal status of
apostates in Islam.
Maryam Namazie
is Spokesperson for
Fitnah, One Law for All and
Council of Ex-Muslims of
Britain; editor of Fitnah’s
Unveiled; Central Committee
member of the
Worker-communist Party of
Iran; and National Secular
Society Honorary Associate.
She was was awarded
Journalist of the Year Dods
Women in Public Life Awards
and was NSS’s 2005
Secularist of the Year Award
winner. She is the producer
and co-host of Bread and
Roses TV.
Nahla Mahmoud
is an
environmentalist and human
right activist originally
from Sudan. She works with a
number of campaigns in the
UK including One Law for All
and Secular Middle East and
North Africa. She leads the
Sudanese Humanists Group and
is Spokesperson for the
Council of Ex-Muslims of
Britain.
Peter Tatchell
has been
campaigning for rights and
global justice since 1967.
He is a member of the queer
human rights group OutRage!
and is the Green Party’s
spokesperson on human
rights. New Statesman
readers voted him sixth on
their list of “Heroes of our
time”; he was Campaigner of
the Year in The Observer
Ethical Awards, Evening
Standard’s 1000 Most
Influential Londoners and
the 2012 Secularist of the
Year winner amongst others.
Pragna Patel
is a founding
member of the Southall Black
Sisters and Women Against
Fundamentalism. She has also
written extensively on race,
gender and religion,
including ‘Citizenship:
Whose Rights?’, ‘Faith in
the State? Asian Women’s
Struggles for Human Rights
in the UK’, and ‘Shrinking
Secular Spaces: Asian Women
at the Intersect of Race,
Religion and Gender’. She
was listed in The Guardian’s
Top 100 women: activists and
campaigners.
Ramin Forghani
is the Iranian-born
founder of Ex-Muslims of
Scotland, an organisation
affiliated with the Council
of Ex-Muslims of Britain and
the Vice Chair of the
Scottish Secular Society.
Rumana Hashem
is a Bangladeshi-born rights
activist and a
political-sociologist. She
is a founding member of Nari
Diganta, a secular
Bangladeshi women’s
organisation in Britain.
Currently based at the
Centre for Research on
Migration, Refugees and
Belonging at the University
of East London, she
completed a doctoral
research on gendered and
sexualised violence in the
armed conflict in south-east
Bangladesh. Rumana
represents Nari Diganta in
the campaign against Sharia
Law in the UK.
Terry Sanderson
is a writer and
journalist and current
President of the National
Secular Society, which
campaigns for the separation
of church and state. He was
prominent in organising the
Protest the Pope
demonstrations and is a
frequent broadcaster and
columnist. He is also a
well-known gay rights
activist and wrote a media
monitoring column for Gay
Times for 25 years. He has
written seven books.
Yasmin Rehman
is a freelance consultant
and doctoral candidate at
the School of Oriental and
African Studies. Her area of
research is polygamy and the
law. She has worked for more
than 20 years predominantly
on violence against women,
race, faith and gender, and
human rights. Yasmin has
worked for Local Government,
the Metropolitan Police
Service as Director of
Partnerships and Diversity
(2004-08) during which time
she also held the Deputy
national lead for forced
marriage and honour based
violence. Yasmin has most
recently been commissioned
as founding CEO of a race
equality charity in East
London, followed by
Transforming Rehabilitation
bid and now reviewing police
responses to domestic abuse
for national charities.
Yasmin is currently member
of the Board of EVAW (End
Violence Against Women
Coalition), an Independent
Adviser for City of London
Police and a member of the
Centre for Secular Space. |
