Monthly Meetup in London

Monthly Meetups are held on the third Monday of every month, 7-8pm UK time in central London. Meetups are run by Ali Malik.

Victoria Gugenheim is an award-winning body painter, artist, and make-up artist, Victoria is also the resident artist for CEMB.

Drawing before she could talk, starting makeup at age 6, progressing to face and bodypainting at 9, Victoria Gugenheim has always had an intense drive to create. Deeply studious and compulsively curious, it is this intense need to understand the world around us that fuels her desire to create beautiful works that provoke a reaction, and make people think. Her drive is to understand why we do what we do, and how we can become more than we are.

Through her questioning of the world and her research into art and our origins, she has become passionate about the necessity of, and merges, art with science. She believes art and science share a common ancestor with the human imagination, and without imagination there can be no hypothesising.  Art is the first visual, material, tangible “What if?” that humanity had, and it started 300,000 years ago deep in the caves near the twin Zambini Rivers of Zimbabwe. There, Homo Heildelbergenesis created the first known art; art on the human body. This was used for rituals, accessing altered states of consciousness, tribal hierarchies, and more besides. The key was its immediate, visceral effect that had the capacity to transform our ancestors into greater versions of themselves. After learning of this, she was hooked on bodypainting and makeup for good.

 Victoria’s art, both mainstream and alternative, has been part of a lifelong quest of both adorning and “de-othering” people through art, public speaking and personal aesthetic choice, and understands that when someone others another human being, it dehumanizes them, objectifies them and makes them a target for everything, from stereotyping at best to at worst, victims of violence, poverty and death; This is most oftentimes caused by fear born of ignorance. Through connecting art, science, visual representations of the self, human rights activism and questioning what we can become both aesthetically and intellectually, Victoria has carved a niche that no other artist to date has dared step into.

Fully committed to living her art, Victoria is not afraid of standing out in the crowd, and encourages others to raise their voices and be heard in a world which cherishes the average over the individual. She believes that only with the realisation of yourself and a willingness to connect with others without othering them, can humanity progress.

Her art ranges from bodypainting, makeup, photography, performances, installations, digital art, clothing design, drawing and painting, merging with science and technology. Never wanting to be limited, she sought out any media necessary to make a concept work- and it is this industriousness that has helped bring her her current success.

Her clients have included Cirque le Soir, Nokia, London Fashion Week, Models of Diversity, Charlotte Church, Alice Cooper’s Halloween Night of Fear, Girls Roc and The World Bodypainting Festival among many others, as well as private commissions that are undertaken with great care, attention to detail and patience. She uses bodypainting as a way of empowering the human spirit, giving the person painted a new found confidence that can be life changing.

Monthly Meetup in London

Monthly Meetups are held on the third Monday of every month, 7-8pm UK time in central London. Meetups are run by Ali Malik.

Ibtissame Betty Lachgar is Moroccan. She is a clinical psychologist specialised in Criminology and Victimology, in the fight against sexist and sexual violence. In 2009, she founded the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (M.A.L.I.) in Morocco. As a result of her activism, she has been the target of harassment, intimidation and threats, as well as arbitrary arrests and prosecution.

CEMB is organising a picnic at embassies that persecute those who refuse to fast during Ramadan on 18 March at 4pm. The picnic will be followed by a Meet-Up in Central London with Betty Ibtissame Lachgar, the founder of Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (M.A.L.I.) in Morocco. She will speak of their fast-defying actions in Morocco. To join picnic at embassies including of Iran, Morocco, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and meet-up, please contact Ali Malik at ali.malik@ex-muslim.org.uk.

Join monthly support groups to talk about issues that affect ex-Muslims.

CEMB currently has two 90-minute online sessions on the first Monday and Wednesday of every month, 6.30-8.00pm UK time. There is also a woman’s support group on the second Monday of every month. The sessions are led by Counselling Psychologist Dr SAVIN BAPIR-TARDY.

If you have never attended a session before, please email hello@council-of-ex-muslims-of-britain-e5a565.ingress-baronn.ewp.live.

Join monthly support groups to talk about issues that affect ex-Muslims.

CEMB currently has two 90-minute online sessions on the first Monday and Wednesday of every month, 6.30-8.00pm UK time. There is also a woman’s support group on the second Monday of every month. The sessions are led by Counselling Psychologist Dr SAVIN BAPIR-TARDY.

If you have never attended a session before, please email hello@council-of-ex-muslims-of-britain-e5a565.ingress-baronn.ewp.live.

Monthly Meetups are held on the third Monday of every month, 7-8pm UK time in central London. Meetups are run by Ali Malik.

About the Speaker:

Megan Manson is head of campaigns at the NSS. She previously worked for the Japanese government promoting cultural exchange and language learning. She has long been active in local interfaith initiatives.

World Award-winning body painter and world-ranking make-up artist, Victoria Gugenheim is a revolutionary pushing the boundaries of her craft, integrating it with fantasy, high fashion, fine art, fact and fortitude with an impeccable track record.

We are very lucky to have Victoria running a body painting workshop as part of the Spring Mayven Festival. In this female only space, Victoria will introduce how to utilise bodypainting as a means of self-expression, working through trauma, embracing personal power and radical autonomy away from the male gaze.

Photos will only be taken with explicit consent given, and women will have a chance to sign up to her new documentary and exhibition project,  Painted Powerful: My Body is Mine.

Tickets: £10, £8 concessions or pay what you can. Book here.

Victoria Gugenheim is a world award winning bodypainter and world ranking makeup artist.

She has worked on clients as diverse as Marvel, Charlotte Church, Wintercon, and has been in a number of feature films including James Bond. A woman’s rights and  human rights activist, she has also worked for CEMB with Maryam Namazie for the part decade, helping women who have fled oppressive Islamist regimes work with their body  as radical protest.

You can follow Victoria on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

28 June 2024, 730pm, De St Saulge, France
Conversation on women’s struggle in Iran

Maryam Namazie and Sofia Amara shed light on the inextricable. Maryam Namazie is a rights activist who is leading the fight of women, in Iran and elsewhere, against Islamic oppression. Sofia Amara is a journalist who has been fighting for information in the Middle East for around thirty years. They will talk about the struggle of women in Iran, prospects for a democratic revolution and its effects in the region.
In a free conversation, Sofia interviewing Maryam, they will answer all these questions or others, for a fascinating talk where we know in advance that we will only be able to understand the world better after having heard them.

Monthly Meetup in London

Monthly Meetups are held on the third Monday of every month, 7-8pm UK time in central London. Meetups are run by Ali Malik.