An open letter to Facebook founders on MIna and Maryam's accounts

UPDATE 21 September 2010: No further action required - both Mina and my Facebook accounts have been reinstated. Thanks for all your help on this!


Mr Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook Headquarters
156 University Avenue
Palo Alto
California 94301-1605

Dear Mr Zuckerberg,

I am writing to ask that you reinstate the Facebook accounts of Maryam Namazie and Mina Ahadi as a matter of urgency. Their accounts were disabled without warning on Monday 13 September 2010. As well as reinstating these accounts, we ask that an explanation is provided as to why they were disabled.

Maryam Namazie and Mina Ahadi are well known human rights campaigners who have worked globally to end the barbaric practice of stoning, as well as other human rights abuses. Both have been awarded Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society (UK) and named in the top 45 ‘women of the year’ by Elle magazine in Canada.

Ms Namazie and Ms Ahadi’s campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – an Iranian woman recently sentenced to death by stoning for adultery – has undoubtedly contributed to the prevention of her execution. Therefore, it is vital that their Facebook accounts be reinstated and their campaigns allowed to continue unfettered; Facebook provides them with an important communications tool and method of increasing support for their work.

Not only were these accounts disabled without warning, but without reason. At present therefore, we have little choice but to assume that their Facebook accounts have disabled for political reasons.

Please clarify the reasons for these accounts being disabled, and whether or not Facebook respects the rights of human rights campaigners to work freely and without prejudice on your website.

We look forward to your immediate response.

Anne Marie Waters, Spokesperson, One Law for All, UK
Terry Sanderson, President, National Secular Society, UK
Ophelia Benson, Editor, Butterflies and Wheels, USA
Hassan Radwan, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, UK
Joan Smith, Journalist, UK
Professor A. C. Grayling, Philosopher, UK
Fariborz Pooya, Iranian Secular Society, UK
Mahin Alipour, Equal Rights Now, Sweden
Annie Sugier, President, Ligue du Droit Internaitonal des Femmes, France
Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Human Rights Activist and President, Stop Child Executions, Canada
Maria Hagberg, Chair person of the Network Against Honour Related Violence, Sweden
Issam Shukri, Organization to Defend Secularism and Civil Rights in Iraq, Canada
Sonja Eggerickx, President, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Belgium