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Quick Facts
Biography
Rabia Özden Kazan is a former Muslim, a Turkish award-winning women's rights activist, and the president of the Middle Eastern Women's Coalition (MEWC), former board of directors in the National Diversity Coalition for Trump (NDC TRUMP). Kazan is author of the best selling book The Angels of Tehran about the legal prostitution system in Iran.
Career
Kazan started her journalism career as a TV correspondent in 1996 with Istanbul Documentary, for the Turkish channel Flash TV. She became a columnist for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) affiliated with Ortadoğu newspaper where she worked for six years. Meanwhile, she became known in Turkey through an important, interview with Mehmet Ali Ağca when she was working at dailyOrtadogu newspaper as investigative journalist. She then founded the news magazine Haber Revizyon in İstanbul.
In 2007, Kazan went to Iran undercover, where she witnessed child marriages, women trafficking and wedleases. She discovered a legal prostitution system within the Islamic regime. She reported child marriages, and interviewed approximately 200 women. When Kazan returned to her country she published her book Tahran Melekleri (Legal Prostitution) (The Angels of Tehran), which was about Nikah mut‘ah. Kazan received various threats after publication, although her book has become a bestseller in Turkey. Kazan's book Sia Islamic Prostution was the first book about temporary marriage.
Kazan visited many Middle Eastern countries where she recorded information, and has dedicated her work to saving women across the Middle East from the Sharia Law.
In 2008, Kazan married Giacinto Licursi, an Italian lawyer and politician, and she subsequently moved to Rome. There she actively promoted Secularism in Islam, prevention of child marriages and woman trafficking on different platforms including Italian TV channels.
Kazan moved to the US in 2010 and worked for World Federation of United Nations Associations at the United Nations for two years.
She decided to remove her hijab in 2012, which she was forced to wear from age seven, and started working as a writer and women's rights activist at the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA).
Kazan launched a global campaign in 2014 named This Is Not My Allah against Islamic Terrorism with French political analyst Alain Wagner in New York City. The campaign was meant to represent a voice and break the silence of Muslims who feared speaking out against radical Islam.
In 2015, Rabia Kazan endorsed Donald Trump because of his statement about radical Islam. In 2016, she joined NDC TRUMP (National Diversity Coalition for Trump) as executive. In 2016, Kazan gave an interview to CNN News, "Islamic Regime hates America," in which she spoke about her opinion and how she believes that the way Trump is handling the issue is correct and how moderate Muslims need to stand up against radical Islam. In 2018 she became a president of the Middle Eastern Women's Coalition.