| RATIONALIST INTERNATIONAL |
New Honorary Associates
Rationalist International is pleased to welcome three new Honorary Associates.
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Maryam Namazie 
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Maryam Namazie lives in London. She was born in Iran. Namazie is a prominent human rights activist, author and broadcaster and has been leading campaigns against stonings and executions in Islamic societies, opposing the veiling of children, opposing Sharia or religious laws, defending the banning of religious symbols from schools and public institutions, calling for secularism, de-religionisation of society and fpr freedom of expression. Previously, Namazie was the elected Executive Director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugee, a refugee run organisation with 60 branches in 20 countries worldwide for seven years. As director of the organisation, she campaigned on behalf of thousands of Iranian asylum seekers and refugees having intervened successfully on many cases. In 2005 she was awarded "Secularist of the Year" by National Secular Society, a prominent freethought organisation in the UK.
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Jocelyn Bézecourt 
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Jocelyn Bézecourt lives in Paris. He won his PhD in astrophysics in the Toulouse Observatory on Evolution of Galaxies and Gravitational Lensing. He is an active and vocal atheist who has presented his positions in conferences, articles and books. 2006 appeared: Against Benedict XVI; The Vatican against liberties" (French), co-written with Gérard Da Silva.
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Pekka Elo 
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Pekka Elo lives in Helsinki. He has worked for rationalism, humanism and philosophy in Finland since 1970's. He is a long time president of the Finnish Humanist Union and editor of the Finnish Humanist Journal. Elo works in the Finnish National Board of Education and is responsible for the secular ethical and philosophy instruction. He is also a member of the National Matriculation Examination Board. He also has international activities as a governing board member of AIPPh (Association Internationale des Professeurs de Philosophie). He is responsible for UNESCO World Heritage Education and ASP-Schools in Finland. Pekka Elo has lectured in various international conferences and he has published over 150 books and articles.