Farah Karimi

Farahnaz "Farah" Karimi (; born 15 November 1960 in Yasukand, Iran) is an Iranian-Dutch politician. She was a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands between 1998 and 2006 for the GreenLeft party. Since 2019 she has been a Senator for the GreenLeft party.

Early life and education Karimi was born in Iran in 1960. She received primary education and secondary education in Tehran, between 1966 and 1978. In 1978 she went to the Isfahan University of Technology to study industrial design. From the age of 15, Karimi became interested in progressive interpretations of Islam and in Ali Shariati. In her youth, Karimi was involved in the resistance against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and campaigned for democracy and human rights in Iran. Karimi saw the Iranian Revolution as a moment to put a form of Islamic socialism into practice.

In Hamburg, Germany, Karimi attended a college for foreign students in 1985.

Between 1986 and 1988 mathematics and information science at University of Kiel. Between 1983 and 1988 Karimi was active in different refugee groups in Germany and France. In April 1998, she became a board member of GreenLeft.

In 1998 she was a national project leader for "Heel de Buurt" of the Dutch Institute for Care and Welfare. Karimi was also active in civil society. Between 1991 and 2001, she was a member of the Board of Vluchtelingenorganisaties Nederland.

Political life In the 1998 elections Karimi was elected to the House of Representatives for GreenLeft. There she taught and supported different committees of the National Assembly of Afghanistan.

In November 2007 she was appointed general director of Oxfam Novib. She succeeded Sylvia Borren.

Karimi is also active in civil society. She writes for Rooz, a free, Persian online newspaper. Since 2004, she has been a member of the Board of Advice of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World in Leiden. In 2006, she founded Bridging the Gulf, a foundation for human security in the Middle East]. Between 2006 and 2007, she was a member of the board of Parliamentarians for Global Action in New York.

Personal life Karimi has been married twice. Her first husband was also involved in the Mojahedin-e Khalgh. When she broke from the organization in 1986 she also broke with him.

She has one son with her first husband, who was born when Karimi fled from Iran. In 1989 she was married again. Karimi speaks Persian, Dutch, English, Turkish and German.

Selected works Slagveld Afghanistan (El secreto del fuego: mi vida contra el fanatismo islámico/Battlefield Afghanistan) (2006) (Dutch, Spanish and English Edition) Het geheim van het vuur (The Secret of Fire) (2005) together with Chris Keulemans In naam van de vrijheid: hoe onze wereld na 9/11 steeds onvrijer is geworden (In the name of freedom: how our world has become increasingly unfree after 9/11), 2021 (Dutch and English Edition)