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Rana Ahmad or Rana Ahmad Hamd[3] (born 1985[1]) is the pseudonym[1] of a Syrian women's rights activist and ex-Muslim born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who fled to Germany in 2015, where she currently resides.[2]: 0:10  Her flight, assisted by Atheist Republic and Faith to Faithless, was partially documented in the Vice News documentary Leaving Islam: Rescuing Ex-Muslims (2017). Her 2018 German-language autobiography Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen ('Women Aren't Allowed to Dream Here'[2]: 0:14 ), also translated into French,[4] and became a Spiegel Top-10-best-seller.[5] In 2017, Ahmad founded the Cologne-based Atheist Refugee Relief[6] with the goal of providing 'practical assistance to refugees without religion and to improve their living conditions through political work.'[7]

Key Information

Biography

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Youth

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Ahmad's father came from Syria to work as a construction manager in Saudi Arabia in the mid-1970s.[3] Four years later, he married Ahmad's mother in Syria and took her to Riyadh.[3] Ahmad was born there in 1985[1] and has an older and a younger brother and an older sister.[3] Her family was deeply religious,[3] in her words 'an extremist family compared to other families in our society', and that she and her siblings were taught the Quran from the age of 4.[8]

Ahmad went to a state girls' school,[note 1] where more than a quarter of all education was dedicated to religion.[3] She was taught that all non-Muslims would go to hell, and that hating Christians and Jews was a religious duty.[3] She was allowed to cycle around on her bike, for example to buy groceries, when the family was on holiday at her father's parents in Syria. But at the age of 10, her grandfather took her bike away, saying she was 'too old for that now', which she felt robbed her of her most important freedom.[9]: 5:58  Amhad did not understand why it should be considered haram if "big girls" like her ride a bike, but not if boys do the same.[9]: 11:33, 13:30  The very next day,[9]: 14:21  also from the age of 10, Ahmad was compelled to wear an abaya[3] and a black hijab.[8][9]: 5:58, 14:21  Although Saudi law does not require women to wear headgear that is more restrictive than the hijab, at age 13 Ahmad was compelled by her family and her school to wear an even more face-covering niqab, which only left her eyes uncovered.[8] Although she didn't understand the religious rules that were subsequently imposed upon her, she accepted and complied.[4] She had never had any contact with a boy or man that was not related to her until she reached adulthood.[3]

Higher education and online exploration

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At the age of 19, Ahmad was to be married off, and an engagement party took place in Syria, but because her would-be husband refused to move to Saudi Arabia and she refused to move to Syria, the plans did not materialise.[3] Meanwhile, her husband turned abusive and prompted her to seek a divorce and move back in with her parents, which stained her reputation in society.[4] She rejected three more marriage proposals by Saudi men in subsequent years, arguing she wanted to advance her education first.[3] Ahmad attended vocational school courses in English and EDP, then worked as a receptionist and office worker in various medical practices and hospitals.[3] Due to the Saudi male guardianship system, however, she could barely leave the house and if she wanted to travel by car, her male relatives had to drive her; she wasn't allowed to travel alone.[3]

However, the restrictions and obligations of being a married woman made her question her role, her religion and evolved into a desire for freedom.[4] In search for answers to her questions, she turned to the internet, discovering philosophy (which Ahmad says is banned in Saudi Arabia[10][2]: 1:30 ) and atheism[4] at the age of 25.[3] This happened in 2011, when she ran into a tweet from someone using the Twitter handle "Arab Atheist", which she had to Google Translate to understand.[3][10] Shocked, Ahmad contacted "Arab Atheist", who recommended her multiple documentaries (for example, on the theory of evolution and the Big Bang) and books from Richard Dawkins, Friedrich Nietzsche, Voltaire and Charles Darwin translated to Arabic.[3][10] "I cried when I discovered all the things I was never taught, what they withheld from me," Ahmad said in a 2016 interview.[3] After about a year, she concluded she could no longer believe, because of all the contradictions in the Quran.[3] It caused her even greater fear and sorrow to realise that atheism and apostasy in Saudi Arabia were punishable by death, and she probably had to leave the country and everything she had behind, in order to survive.[10] She hid her changing views from her family and continued praying five times a day, while she searched for help online from various groups such as Faith to Faithless, Ex-Muslims of North America and Atheist Republic.[3] For five years, she lived as a closeted atheist in Saudi Arabia, terrified that her family would kill her or the state would execute her if her nonbelief were discovered.[8]

Family troubles

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Rana held this Atheist Republic paper in the Great Mosque of Mecca.[11]

Ahmad's older brother began to suspect she was secretly seeing men, and placed a covert listening device in her room. Catching her calling with a male friend, he stormed her room and tried to kill her, but their father heard her screams for help and intervened.[3][11]: 7:30  After this incident, Ahmad tried to commit suicide by cutting her wrists, but again her father found her in time to take her to the hospital and save her life.[3][11]: 7:54  Ahmad got a new job as secretary at a school for mentally disabled children. Meanwhile, she took on English studies.[3]

When her mother discovered Ahmad's tweets about religious doubts, she was furious and put Ahmad under house arrest for a month without access to her laptop or smartphone.[3] Her mother forced her to pray and recite the Quran.[3] In 2014, she was forced by her family to participate in the hajj.[3][11]: 6:07  She sought and found the help of Atheist Republic as well as other similar organisations online. While on hajj, she took a picture of herself holding a piece of paper with "Atheist Republic" written on it, while standing inside the Great Mosque of Mecca facing the Kaaba, the holiest site of Islam.[11] She was extremely frightened because she knew she would be killed if the people around her saw the paper and discovered her nonbelief, but she wanted to tell the internet that she existed as an atheist in Mecca and, like many nonbelievers in Saudi Arabia, was not here by her own choice.[3][11]: 5:52  It was also the first time she decided she had to leave the country quickly, or otherwise end her life.[10] She requested Atheist Republic to upload the photo to Facebook after she left Mecca, and they did so on 3 August 2014; a few days later she was overwhelmed to find it had gone viral.[9]: 26:02 [11]: 6:07 

Flight

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The 2016 Vice News film Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving Islam documents Rana Ahmad's flight to Germany.[11][3]

Ahmad made plans to escape the country, aided by Faith to Faithless. At first, Ahmad sought to flee to the Netherlands, but the embassy refused to grant her a visa. Thereafter she thought of marrying a like-minded man to leave the country with, but found no candidate. Because her Syrian passport would be outdated by the end of 2015 and the Syrian embassy in Saudi Arabia was closed (since 2012 due to the Syrian Civil War), Ahmad had to hurry and could only flee to a country without a visa requirement, such as Turkey.[3] As a foreign woman from Syria, her employer rather than her father had to grant her permission to travel abroad, and she was able to convince him that she was going on a family holiday so he signed the papers for her.[3]

On 26 May 2015, she took an aeroplane from Riyadh via Dubai to Istanbul Atatürk Airport, only taking her laptop, documents (including her Syrian passport) and 200 American dollars.[3] She took off her hijab and abaya upon arrival for the first time as an adult in public, and henceforth adopted her pseudonym 'Rana Ahmad (Hamd)' to frustrate attempts by her family to track her down.[3] After four days she took the bus to a friend (another ex-Muslim from Syria[10]) in İzmir, who offered her a small house for rent.[3] For the first time in her life, Ahmad danced in the street and drank alcohol.[3] However, she received word that her family discovered she had escaped to Turkey and feared they were going to come after her. She cut her hair short, dyed it blonde and put on colourful contact lenses as a disguise.[3] Next, Armin Navabi, the founder of Atheist Republic, started a crowdfunding campaign for her to finance her stay and further journey into the European Union, which raised $5000.[3][11]: 8:26  In August 2015, Imtiaz Shams from Faith to Faithless, joined by a camera crew of Vice News, came to visit her in İzmir to discuss solutions.[11]: 8:35  After vainly trying to obtain a visa to enter the EU for five months, Ahmad decided to cross the border with Greece illegally by boat, which succeeded on the third attempt.[3][10]

From Greece, she travelled across North Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, reaching Germany in November 2015.[3] Along the way, she stayed in various refugee camps for some time.[3] She cancelled plans to continue to Sweden because she was out of money, tired of travelling and had heard Germany's education system was good.[3]

Life in Germany

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Upon arrival in Germany in November 2015, Ahmad spent a year in a refugee camp located about an hour from Cologne, before she was assigned her own house.[10][11]: 16:39  On 31 December 2015, the Vice News camera crew visited her again in Cologne.[11]: 16:39  She spent much of her first year reading (physics) books, intending to study nuclear physics or nuclear engineering.[10][11]: 17:24  She felt threatened by Muslim refugees in the camp, however, many of whom thought of apostasy as a deadly crime.[3][12] By chance, she discovered by writing to Maryam Namazie[9]: 3:31  that the Central Council of Ex-Muslims was coincidentally headquartered in Cologne as well, and after contacting Mina Ahadi, the Council and the Giordano Bruno Foundation were able to help her find a house for herself.[12]

At the age of 30, after 20 years, she was finally able to buy and ride a bike again in Germany, which she regarded as an important restoration of her freedom. A photo of her holding her new bike in Cologne was used for an Atheist Refugee Relief brochure.[9]: 12:39 

She stated in March 2018 that "I love Germany, I love my free life in Germany."[13] She wanted to adapt quickly, obtain German citizenship, improve her German language skills and support the activities of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims.[13] Since late 2018, Ahmad has been studying physics in Cologne.[2]: 0:10 

Activism in Germany

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Maryam Namazie interviews Rana Ahmad in Cologne, 2017.

In subsequent years, Ahmad has given many interviews to several media, primarily German and French ones, about her experiences and her political and religious opinions, especially with regards to the politics of Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in October 2018.[14][15][16] Ahmad commented that Saudi authorities have failed to stimulate the emancipation of women that many activists have campaigned for, often imprisoning them, and thereby sending women the message they have no future in Saudi Arabia and pushing them to flee the country.[17]

The Vice News documentary Leaving Islam: Rescuing Ex-Muslims featuring part of Ahmad's life journey from Saudi Arabia to Germany was broadcast on 10 February 2016.[11] On 5 March 2016, three months after arriving in Germany, Ahmad held her first public speech in Cologne at a meeting organised by the Central Council of Ex-Muslims. She spoke in Arabic about her life in Saudi Arabia, her flight and her opinion on how Western countries should treat refugees such as herself, with Lebanese–German television journalist Imad Karim providing the German translation.[18]

Ahmad gave her first major interview to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in June 2016.[12] At the time, she was still in a refugee camp waiting to be assigned her own house, and feeling threatened by Muslim refugees in that camp.[3] "I don't hate Muslims, I've also got good Muslim friends who accept me how I am. What I hate is when rights are taken away in the name of religion, especially from women," she said.[3] Although she has no problem with people who hold Islamic beliefs, it has made her angry seeing a 6- or 8-year-old girl being forced to wear the veil in Germany, where German law rather than sharia applies. It also upsets her that some Muslims don't accept Jews.[10][13]

Ahmad in conversation in De Balie during Celebrating Dissent 2019.

On 15 August 2016, Ahmad was interviewed on television for the first time by journalist Jaafar Abdul Karim from Deutsche Welle in Arabic, excerpts of which were translated to English and other languages.[8] Three million people saw her on television declaring she had left Islam, and excerpts from it went viral on the Internet, resulting in Muslims from around the world sending her numerous threats and insults.[19]

With the help of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims and the Giordano Bruno Foundation, Ahmad founded the Atheist Refugee Relief[12] in March 2017,[20] and officially presented at the 10th anniversary of the Council on 17 November 2017.[21] Its goal is 'to support refugees who are discriminated against or even threatened with their very lives because of their atheistic conviction or their critical attitude towards religion.'[20] The Relief's volunteers are working on a daily basis to protect especially female atheist refugees – as they are targeted more frequently and viciously – from further persecution (for example, 'assaults, exclusion, threats and violence') in Germany.[6] As of December 2018, it has helped 37 recognised nonreligious refugees since November 2017, but the demand was rising quickly.[6] According to Dittmar Steiner, the Atheist Refugee Relief received 'two to three requests [for help] a week' when it started, which had increased to 'between seven and nine a day' a year later.[6]

On 15 January 2018, her book Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen: Mein Ausbruch aus Saudi-Arabien, mein Weg in die Freiheit ('Women Aren't Allowed to Dream Here: My Escape from Saudi Arabia and My Path to Freedom') was published in Germany and became a Spiegel Top-10-best-seller.[10] A French translation was published in Paris in October 2018 under the name Ici, les femmes ne rêvent pas : Récit d'une évasion ('Here, Women Do Not Dream: Story of an Escape').[22] According to Ahmad, "We, women, we can change our lives, be free. We think we are weak, but that is wrong; we are strong, and this book proves it."[23]

Book

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  • German original: Ahmad, Rana; Borufka, Sarah (2018). Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen: Mein Ausbruch aus Saudi-Arabien, mein Weg in die Freiheit ('Women Aren't Allowed to Dream Here: My Escape from Saudi Arabia and My Path to Freedom'). btb Verlag. p. 320. ISBN 978-3442757480.
  • French translation: Ahmad, Rana; Borufka, Sarah (2018). Ici, les femmes ne rêvent pas : Récit d'une évasion ('Here, Women Do Not Dream: Story of an Escape'). Translated by Olivier Mannoni. Globe Éditions. p. 320. ISBN 978-2211237710.

See also

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Notes

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Rana Ahmad

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from Grokipedia
Rana Ahmad (born 1985) is the pseudonym of a activist and ex-Muslim who was born in , , and fled to in 2015 after rejecting amid threats to her life due to . Raised in a conservative Sunni Muslim environment where she was compelled to wear the from age nine and the niqab from thirteen, Ahmad sought through clandestine online engagement with atheist communities, ultimately prioritizing empirical over religious doctrine. Her escape, facilitated by organizations including Faith to Faithless and Atheist Republic, highlighted the severe risks faced by individuals leaving in countries enforcing strict penalties for , such as execution or imprisonment. In , Ahmad co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief in March 2017, partnering with the Central Council of and the Foundation to provide support for refugees persecuted for abandoning religion or advocating secular values, emphasizing practical aid like legal assistance and safe housing amid ongoing threats from Islamist networks. As a vocal critic of religious orthodoxy's impact on women's autonomy and , she has authored works and spoken internationally on the causal links between Islamic doctrines and subjugation, drawing from first-hand experience in Saudi society where female guardianship laws enforce dependency and limit mobility. Her activism underscores the empirical reality of apostasy's life-threatening consequences in Muslim-majority states, challenging narratives that downplay such perils through .

Early Life

Birth and Family Background

Rana Ahmad was born in 1985 in , , to parents of Syrian origin. She holds a and was raised in a Muslim family environment characterized by strict adherence to Islamic norms. Her mother was deeply religious, enforcing traditional practices such as veiling Ahmad at age 10, while her father was comparatively less devout. The family resided in , where Ahmad grew up under Sunni Muslim customs that mandated female covering and limited personal freedoms. She has at least one older brother, whose later suspicions regarding her behavior contributed to familial tensions.

Upbringing in Saudi Arabia and Syria

Rana Ahmad, using the pseudonym , was born in 1985 in , , to parents of Syrian origin, holding Syrian nationality despite her birthplace. Her family adhered to strict Sunni Muslim practices influenced by 's Wahhabi interpretation of , where she was immersed in from early childhood, including memorization of the . Ahmad's upbringing in Riyadh occurred amid the kingdom's rigid gender segregation and guardianship system, which prohibited women from traveling, working, or engaging in public life without a male relative's permission. She attended an all-girls school, where Islamic teachings reinforced female subservience, and by age nine or ten, she was compelled to wear the in public, progressing to the around age thirteen—a practice she later recounted as depriving her of normal childhood experiences and instilling a sense of confinement. Daily life for Ahmad involved limited freedoms typical of Saudi women during that era, including bans on until 2018 and enforced separation from unrelated males, fostering an environment of isolation and surveillance. Although her family's Syrian roots provided a that later facilitated her escape, no records indicate significant time spent in during her formative years; her experiences were shaped predominantly by Saudi societal and religious pressures.

Deconversion from Islam

Education and Emerging Doubts

Rana Ahmad engaged in self-directed studies of physics and related sciences while living in , an pursuit facilitated by limited access to secular materials amid strict religious oversight. This exposure to empirical methodologies and philosophical inquiries prompted initial toward Islamic doctrine around age 26, approximately in 2011. She covertly obtained prohibited texts, including ' The God Delusion, which she downloaded despite blasphemy laws rendering such possession punishable by death. These readings highlighted perceived incompatibilities between and religious claims, fostering a sense of intellectual isolation and fear. Over the ensuing year, Ahmad scrutinized the , identifying what she viewed as internal contradictions—such as inconsistencies in historical accounts and ethical prescriptions—that undermined its purported divine origin and inerrancy. This analytical process intensified her doubts, evoking severe emotional distress, including depression over the perceived unfairness of doctrinal demands on personal belief.

Online Engagement and Loss of Faith

![Rana Ahmad holding an "Atheist Republic" sign at the Kaaba][float-right] Ahmad's emerging doubts about Islam deepened through clandestine online engagement with atheist communities, as access to prohibited materials was severely restricted in Saudi Arabia. Around 2011, at approximately age 26, while pursuing studies in physics, she secretly read books on science and philosophy, which exposed her to critiques of religious texts and prompted initial questioning of Quranic claims. This period of intellectual exploration extended to online platforms, where she discovered atheist philosophy and joined groups such as Atheist Republic, an international founded by ex-Muslim . Exposure to discussions on religious inconsistencies, including perceived contradictions in the —such as varying accounts of creation and inheritance laws—further eroded her faith over the subsequent year. By 2013, Ahmad's disbelief had crystallized; she later stated she could no longer adhere to due to these irreconcilable textual flaws, marking her full transition to . A pivotal occurred during a family to , enforced by her mother suspecting wavering belief: Ahmad held a sign reading "Atheist Republic" before the , intentionally captured on surveillance cameras as a symbolic rejection of her upbringing.

Escape and Exile

Family Conflicts and Threats

Ahmad's emerging created acute familial tensions, as her family noticed her increasing time spent on online forums and began questioning her behavior. She later recounted that discovery of her would have prompted her relatives to kill her, reflecting cultural norms where honor killings enforce religious adherence. In a 2016 , Ahmad explicitly stated that either her or Saudi authorities would have executed her for renouncing , prompting her to flee the country in 2015. carries the death penalty under Saudi law, often upheld through familial to preserve . To mitigate risks to her relatives from potential reprisals, Ahmad adopted her upon going public, severing direct contact to avoid endangering them further. Post-exile, she expressed ongoing emotional distress from separation but prioritized survival over reconciliation, citing persistent threats tied to her visibility as an ex-Muslim advocate.

Flight to Europe

In 2015, Ahmad, confronted with severe restrictions on women and lethal risks as an atheist in , resolved to escape rather than face . She contacted networks online and received logistical support from organizations including Atheist Republic and Faith to Faithless for her departure. This clandestine flight, kept secret from her family, was partially captured in the 2017 Vice News documentary Leaving Islam: Rescuing . On a typical workday, after her father dropped her off, Ahmad took a taxi directly to the airport and boarded a flight to , initiating her journey without alerting relatives. From , she proceeded overland via along the migrant-saturated Balkan route toward , enduring extreme dangers as an unaccompanied woman amid hostile terrain, smugglers, and potential persecution. The path involved trekking through multiple countries, including Macedonia and , before crossing into and ultimately , where she sought safety in late 2015.

Asylum Process in Germany

Upon arriving in Germany via the Balkan route in autumn 2015, Ahmad applied for asylum, citing persecution risks due to her from and advocacy for . She was initially accommodated in a in , where she encountered significant threats from devout Muslim refugees, prompting her to conceal her to avoid violence. Ahmad described the environment as akin to "escaping one prison to end up in another," feeling as though she had "never left " due to the pervasive religious pressures and hostility toward non-believers. To secure safer housing, Ahmad contacted the Central Council of Ex-Muslims, led by Mina Ahadi in , and the local branch of the Stiftung, which provided support and facilitated her relocation away from the camp. In June 2016, as she awaited her asylum hearing, Ahmad publicized her plight in a article, highlighting the dangers faced by atheist refugees in German facilities and the need for secular protections during the process; she appeared on sternTV in September 2016 to amplify these concerns. Ahmad's case contributed to broader recognition of as grounds for asylum in , where credible evidence of risk can lead to status under the 1951 Refugee Convention; she ultimately received protection, enabling her residence in and establishment of the Atheist Refugee Relief in 2017.

Life in Germany

Initial Settlement and Challenges

Upon arriving in Germany in November 2015, Ahmad was placed in a located approximately one hour from , where she resided for about a year. During this period, she faced significant safety risks due to her , as the camp environment, populated largely by Muslim refugees, posed threats similar to those experienced by other vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ individuals or , necessitating concealment of her atheist beliefs to avoid or . Ahmad later described the camp conditions as precarious for secular individuals, highlighting the irony of fleeing only to encounter parallel dangers in asylum accommodations. The asylum process for atheist refugees like Ahmad presented additional hurdles, as German authorities sometimes struggled to recognize apostasy from as a valid basis for , despite the severe penalties it carries in countries of origin, leading to prolonged uncertainty and inadequate initial support tailored to non-religious claims. After approximately one year, in late 2016, Ahmad was granted asylum and assigned independent housing, marking the transition from camp life to tentative self-sufficiency. Initial integration efforts were compounded by language barriers, cultural isolation, and the psychological toll of ongoing family threats from , though she began learning German and connecting with ex-Muslim networks to mitigate these issues. These experiences underscored broader systemic challenges for secular migrants, prompting Ahmad's later advocacy for specialized support mechanisms.

Professional and Educational Pursuits

Upon receiving asylum in , Ahmad focused on educational advancement, attending university courses as a guest auditor to prepare for formal studies in physics, a field aligned with her prior interest in science that contributed to her deconversion. This pursuit reflected her determination to rebuild her life intellectually after years of restricted opportunities in . Professionally, she worked in refugee support, drawing on her own experiences to counsel non-religious asylum seekers facing integration barriers and threats from co-religionists in shelters. In 2017, she co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief organization in , serving in operational roles to provide practical aid such as safe housing and legal guidance to secular . These efforts marked her transition from personal survival to structured professional engagement in migrant assistance.

Activism and Advocacy

Involvement with Ex-Muslim Organizations

Upon arriving in Germany as a refugee in 2015, Ahmad became actively involved with ex-Muslim networks, receiving assistance for her escape from organizations including Faith to Faithless, a UK-based group supporting individuals leaving religion, particularly Islam. Her collaboration with such groups extended to public advocacy, as her flight was featured in the 2017 Vice News documentary Leaving Islam: Rescuing Ex-Muslims, which highlighted the underground efforts of Faith to Faithless in aiding apostates from Muslim-majority countries. In March 2017, Ahmad co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief e.V. (ARR), an organization dedicated to supporting atheist and ex-religious refugees, many of whom are fleeing persecution for . The initiative was launched with support from the Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime (Central Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany) and the Foundation, focusing on providing , psychological support, and integration assistance to those at risk due to their rejection of . ARR has since assisted hundreds of refugees, emphasizing the causal link between from and threats of violence or death under law in origin countries. Ahmad has been a member of Germany and actively engages with the Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime, participating in political activism and events to raise awareness about the challenges faced by ex-Muslims. In interviews, she has described her commitment to the Zentralrat's efforts, including campaigns against religious coercion and for the rights of apostates in . Her involvement underscores a focus on of persecution, drawing from personal experiences and data on laws in Islamic nations, rather than unsubstantiated narratives of .

Key Campaigns and Public Speaking

In 2017, Ahmad co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief e.V. (Saekulare Fluechtlingshilfe), a Cologne-based organization dedicated to offering practical support—such as , counseling, and integration services—to non-religious refugees fleeing , while also campaigning for greater societal of atheists and in . The initiative stemmed from her own experiences and collaborations with groups like the Central Council of Ex-Muslims and the Giordano Bruno Foundation, aiming to address the underrecognized needs of secular asylum seekers amid broader refugee inflows. Ahmad has conducted public speaking to highlight apostasy risks in Saudi Arabia and advocate for women's rights and secular freedoms, often drawing on her physics background to critique religious dogma empirically. In September 2016, she appeared twice as a guest on the German investigative program stern TV, detailing threats from her family and the broader perils of atheism under Islamic law. Her June 2016 profile in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung further amplified these discussions, marking an early public campaign against religious coercion. Subsequent engagements include a 2019 interview with evolutionary biologist , where she elaborated on cultural constraints on Saudi women and the intellectual basis for her , tied to promoting her Women Aren't Allowed to Dream Here. In November 2023, she joined panels at the International Conference Celebrating Laïcité in , organized by the , focusing on secularism's role in countering Islamist pressures and supporting ex-Muslims' rights. She has also delivered talks, such as book presentations in , emphasizing of inequalities under and the need for asylum protections based on verifiable apostasy threats rather than generalized migration narratives.

Support for Atheist Refugees

In 2017, Rana Ahmad co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief (ARR), a Cologne-based dedicated to providing practical and legal assistance to non-religious refugees, particularly atheists and apostates fleeing in Muslim-majority countries. The initiative was motivated by Ahmad's own experiences in German refugee camps, where she faced isolation and threats after her became known among Muslim refugees, highlighting the risks of cohabitation with religiously conservative communities that view as a capital offense under Islamic law. ARR was established in March 2017 with support from the Central Council of and the Foundation, aiming to address the "double vulnerability" of atheist refugees: from their home governments and hostility within asylum reception centers dominated by co-religionists. ARR's core activities include offering confidential counseling, legal aid for asylum applications based on apostasy claims, relocation to safe housing away from Islamist threats, and integration support such as German language courses and job placement assistance. The organization maintains an office in Cologne, opened in January 2021 with funding from the Deutsche Postcode Lottery, to provide secure spaces for consultations and advocacy against bureaucratic hurdles that disadvantage non-religious applicants. By December 2018, ARR had assisted 37 recognized non-religious refugees since its inception in November 2017, with demand continuing to grow amid rising apostasy cases from countries like Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. The group's efforts emphasize empirical challenges in asylum processing, where atheist claims often receive skepticism compared to religious ones, despite verifiable fatwas and legal penalties for in origin countries. ARR collaborates with secular networks to produce support letters for asylum hearings and promotes awareness of intra-refugee conflicts, countering narratives that downplay religious motivations for . As of 2025, it continues operations as a migrant-led , with Ahmad serving on the board alongside other ex-Muslim activists, focusing on long-term secular integration rather than short-term aid alone.

Achievements and Broader Impact

Ahmad co-founded the Atheist Refugee Relief (Säkulare Flüchtlingshilfe) in , a Cologne-based aimed at defending the of apostates and non-religious individuals fleeing persecution in Muslim-majority countries. The group offers practical including legal counseling for asylum claims, emergency financial support, safe accommodation, and integration assistance to mitigate risks such as violence from co-religionists in camps. By 2021, it had supported over 70 from 15 countries, with assistance expanding to 138 atheist in 2024 alone, primarily from , , , and . Through her leadership, Ahmad's efforts spotlighted the acute vulnerabilities of non-believers among refugees, including intra-camp threats where can provoke assaults or , prompting greater German public and institutional awareness of ideological as a basis for asylum. Her has influenced discussions on prioritizing secular refugees in migration policy, emphasizing humanistic over generalized religious aid frameworks that may inadvertently expose atheists to harm. This work has fostered alliances with entities like the Central Council of Ex-Muslims and the Foundation, amplifying calls for targeted protections against theocratic intolerance.

Criticisms and Controversies

Accusations of Islamophobia

Rana Ahmad's public critiques of Islamic doctrines, including punishments and restrictions, have prompted accusations of Islamophobia from some Islamic advocacy groups and multiculturalist commentators who interpret her positions as indiscriminate against rather than targeted opposition to religious tenets. These claims often arise in contexts where her advocacy highlights of harms, such as honor killings and fatwas against apostates, which critics reframe as stereotyping an entire faith community. However, such accusations against Ahmad specifically remain sporadic and lack prominence in major media, potentially due to her identity as a former Muslim whose experiences provide firsthand causal insight into doctrinal enforcement. Ahmad consistently rejects the Islamophobia label as a rhetorical device to inhibit of Islam's verifiable societal impacts, distinguishing —an irrational —from evidence-based rejection of ideologies that prescribe death for leaving the faith, as codified in Sharia-based laws in nations like and . In a January 2022 statement, she asserted that "with the word Islamophobia, [one] tries to stifle " in , where debates on integration often invoke the term to shield religious practices from challenge. Her defenders, including evolutionary biologist , argue that equating critique with phobia conflates individuals with the creed, ignoring causal links between texts like 4:89—endorsing killing apostates—and real-world executions, such as those documented by organizations in Muslim-majority states. Dawkins, in a September 2023 interview contextualizing Ahmad's escape from , described his own "wrongly accused" status to underscore that opposition stems from "phobic" only toward totalitarianism's threats, not believers themselves. This dynamic reflects broader patterns where face smears to delegitimize their testimony, yet Ahmad's work—focused on refugee aid for atheists fleeing —prioritizes individual liberation over collective vilification, aligning with first-hand accounts of doctrinal rather than unsubstantiated bias. No peer-reviewed studies or major reports substantiate systemic Islamophobia in her output, which emphasizes data on asylum seekers endangered by family or state reprisals post-apostasy.

Responses to Threats and Backlash

Ahmad adopted the pseudonym "Rana Ahmad" upon fleeing to shield her real identity, her family's safety, and to mitigate death threats stemming from her and public . Upon arriving in in 2015, she encountered harassment and threats from fellow Muslim refugees in shared asylum camps, where her became known, recreating the perils she had escaped in the . In response, Ahmad prioritized securing independent housing to isolate herself from hostile environments and channeled her experiences into systemic , lobbying German authorities for segregated accommodations for at-risk atheist and secular refugees to prevent intra-camp violence. To address the broader vulnerability of , Ahmad established the Atheist Refugee Relief (ARR) organization in 2017, providing targeted support including psychosocial counseling, legal assistance for asylum claims based on , and emergency relocation services for those receiving death threats or facing familial honor-based violence. ARR's initiatives, informed by Ahmad's direct encounters, emphasize proactive security protocols such as anonymous aid distribution and partnerships with secular NGOs to counter isolation and intimidation in refugee settings. Despite ongoing risks, including threats from relatives and Islamist networks, Ahmad persisted in her activism by engaging in international speaking engagements and media appearances, framing her resilience as a necessity to amplify voices silenced by religious and to underscore the causal link between apostasy taboos and violent reprisals. This approach has involved strategic collaborations with figures like to highlight empirical patterns of ex-Muslim endangerment without yielding to demands for .

Debates on Cultural Integration

Ahmad has emphasized that religious adherence, particularly to Islam, poses significant barriers to cultural integration in Europe, as fundamentalist beliefs often clash with host societies' emphasis on individual freedoms, gender equality, and secular governance. In German refugee camps following her arrival in 2015, she reported facing threats and isolation from Muslim co-residents who viewed apostasy as punishable, mirroring enforcement of sharia-like norms that deter assimilation and foster intra-community conflicts rather than adaptation to liberal democratic values. This experience underscores her argument that multiculturalism, by accommodating religious separatism, enables parallel societies where illiberal practices persist, undermining social cohesion and the ability of immigrants to fully participate in Western civic life. Through her founding of Atheist Refugee Relief in 2017, Ahmad promotes targeted integration programs for non-religious migrants, including language training, critical thinking workshops, and psychological support tailored to those rejecting dogmatic ideologies. These initiatives aim to equip apostates and skeptics with tools for economic and social independence, contrasting with broader migrant populations where religious networks reinforce cultural isolation and resistance to host norms, such as veiling or honor-based constraints on women. She has advocated for asylum policies to explicitly recognize atheism as a persecuted identity, arguing that ignoring religion's causal role in integration failures—evident in lower employment rates and value divergences among devout Muslim cohorts per European surveys—perpetuates welfare dependency and ghettoization. In public discourse, Ahmad's position aligns with critics of unchecked from ideologically incompatible backgrounds, positing that genuine integration demands assimilation to Enlightenment principles over multicultural tolerance of supremacist doctrines. Her involvement in ex-Muslim networks, including events with the , highlights opposition to parallel legal or social systems, such as informal councils, which she views as antithetical to and societal unity. While mainstream integration reports from bodies like the note persistent gaps in Muslim socioeconomic outcomes attributable to cultural factors, Ahmad attributes these primarily to Islam's doctrinal imperatives rather than socioeconomic excuses alone, urging secular education as a prerequisite for harmonious coexistence.

Publications and Media

Authored Works

Rana Ahmad co-authored the autobiographical memoir Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen: Mein Ausbruch aus Saudi-Arabien, mein Weg in die Freiheit (Women Are Not Allowed to Dream Here: My Escape from Saudi Arabia, My Path to Freedom), published in January 2018 by Goldmann Verlag, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The book details her upbringing in a conservative Muslim family in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; her gradual rejection of Islamic doctrines through clandestine online exposure to secular thinkers like Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin; experiences of gender-based restrictions and religious indoctrination; and her perilous 2015 escape via Jordan, Turkey, Greece, and the Balkan route to seek asylum in Germany as an apostate and atheist. Co-written with German journalist Sarah Borufka to aid in structuring her narrative, the work emphasizes themes of intellectual liberation, the perils of blasphemy under Sharia law, and the challenges of integration as a refugee. The memoir achieved commercial success in , entering the top 10 of 's bestseller list for in 2018, reflecting public interest in personal accounts of dissent from Islamic societies. It has been translated into French as Ici les femmes ne rêvent pas, but no English edition has been published as of 2025. Ahmad has not authored additional books, though she has contributed forewords or endorsements to works on ex-Muslim experiences and secular aid.

Interviews and Documentaries

Ahmad's flight from in 2015 was documented in the film Rescuing Ex-Muslims: Leaving , released in 2017, which details the assistance provided by organizations such as Atheist Republic and Faith to Faithless in helping escape . The documentary highlights the risks faced by apostates in Muslim-majority countries, including Ahmad's journey to where she sought asylum. She features in the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain's documentary Women Leaving Islam, premiered on February 1, 2021, coinciding with , alongside activists , Fay Rahman, Halima Salat, Mimzy Vidz, and Zara Kay. The film presents personal accounts of these women growing up in Muslim families and countries, their decisions to leave , and the subsequent threats they encountered, emphasizing themes of freedom from religious constraints. Ahmad has given numerous interviews discussing her atheism, women's rights activism, and experiences in Saudi Arabia. In a 2019 interview with Richard Dawkins, she addressed her book Frauen dürfen hier nicht träumen (Women Aren't Allowed to Dream Here) and the challenges of apostasy in her homeland. A 2017 interview with Bread and Roses TV at the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain’s 10th anniversary event focused on the perils of atheism under Saudi guardianship laws. In 2018, Radio France Internationale's Sarah Elzas interviewed her about her exile, childhood indoctrination, and life as a refugee in Germany. Additional interviews, such as one in March 2022 with Exmuslim Scandinavia, covered her ongoing advocacy for ex-Muslim rights.

References

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  3. https://atheist-refugees.com/en/the-foundation-story-ranas-escape/
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  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zncB6hngZg
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  42. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/17602978.Rana_Ahmad
  43. https://ex-muslim.org.uk/2021/01/women-leaving-islam-new-film-premiere-on-1-february-world-hijab-day/
  44. https://ex-muslim.org.uk/2020/12/women-leaving-islam-new-film-sneak-preview/
  45. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PngV3wtq3k
  46. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkz66KgnhXI
  47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKnTl-khMzM
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