Date and Time: 6 March, 14:00 for a 14:30 start. The event ends at 17:00
Venue: Committee Room 4a, Houses of Parliament
Activists, judges, lawyers and artists will join together to show solidarity with the countless courageous women in Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere who are demanding equality and rights at great risk of their lives and to call on the international community to fulfil its common legal responsibility to recognise gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. The afternoon is chaired by Helena Kennedy KC. Panellists are actress Ariane Hejazi, former senior judge in the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and head of the Violence against Women Court Fawzia Amini, former Afghan civil judge Ferozan Easar Qasimi, One Law for All Spokesperson Maryam Namazie and Co-Founder of Project Resist Pragna Patel. There will also be screenings of The Red Suitcase (Short 2022), Rise (short 2023) and Bread and Roses (Trailer 2024), a Daf performance by percussionist Sara Fotros and music by Kurdish/Alevi singer Suna Alan. The event is sponsored by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, One Law for All and Project Resist.
Tickets are available here.

21 March 2025, Ramadan and its impact on women’s rights, health and bodily autonomy
7:00-9:00pm, Central London
Discussion with Maryam Namazie, Veiled Rose and Yasmine Elbaramawy

Tickets are available here.

Tickets are £5. Please note refunds are not available.

BIOGRAPHIES

Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born campaigner and writer. She is Spokesperson of Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and One Law for All. She is the instigator behind the Celebrating Dissent conferences, the largest gatherings of ex-Muslims in history since 2014. During decades of activism, Maryam has organised numerous actions, including #Hair4Freedom and #BodyRiot in support of women in Iran, executive produced Women Leaving Islam and published The Woman’s Quran. The Islamic regime of Iran’s media outlets have called Namazie ‘immoral, a harlot and corrupt.’ Her TedX talk on ‘Creativity in Challenging Islamic Fundamentalism’ was censored and labelled ‘distressing and objectionable.’ Namazie has faced many attempts at censorship, including by Warwick University Student Union and Goldsmiths Islamic Society. Maryam and the CEMB have been featured in a 2016 film by Deeyah Khan called ‘Islam’s Non-Believers.’ She was also a character in DV8 Physical Theatre ‘Can We Talk About This?’ Maryam is winner of numerous awards, including IBKA Sapio award (2022), the 2017 Henry H. Zumach Freedom From Religious Fundamentalism award; 2016 International Laicite Prize from the Comité Laïcité République; the National Secular Society’s Secularist of the Year Award (2005); and the Julia B. Friedman Humanitarian Award (1987), amongst others. She has written many articles on women’s rights issues, free expression, Islamism, and secularism and co-authored Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights (One Law for All, June 2010), Enemies Not Allies: The Far-Right (One Law for All, August 2011), and The Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam (CEMB, August 2017).

Veiled Rose is an ex-Muslim activist passionate about advocating for human rights for all and determined to call out human rights abuses whoever the perpetrator and wherever and whenever the abuse occurs. The fight for human rights is a collective global struggle no excuses, such as cultural relativism will ever suffice. She is Social Media and Communications Manager for Faithless Hijabi, members of Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Ex-Muslims International and a journalist published in A Further Inquiry magazine.

Yasmine El Baramawy is an Egyptian composer, video artist, sound designer and women’s rights activist. She has created a distinctive style that combines the virtuosity of the Oud -one of the world’s oldest instruments- with electronic experimentation, developing her work she creates her unique cosmic sonic experience using with her Semi-acoustic Oud live manipulations mixed with audio/visual messages she captured from life; voicing as a dense auditory landscape of concrete music along with spoken words mixed with her live melodic vocals. She sings, performs and shows her interactions with life surroundings promptly. Yasmine is a vocal proponent of human rights addressing issues of gender-based violence, where she contributed to form an overwhelming wave of mobilisation pushing the government to issue the law against sexual harassment in Egypt back in 2014, she was the first woman to break the taboo of gang rape/mob attacks in her society. Her main focus was to transfer the stigma from the victim to the criminal; where she only comprehends that was/is/will be the right place for it.