102 articles
Mazdak (مزدک)
Mazdak (مزدک), son of Bāmdād, led Mazdakism, an egalitarian Zoroastrian-derived movement under Sasanian king Kawād I (488–531), preaching common property; suppressed by Khusrau I.
Medha Patkar
Medha Patkar (born 1954) is an Indian social activist, founder-leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan against the Sardar Sarovar Dam, National Convenor of NAPM, and Right Livelihood Award (1991) and Goldman Prize (1992) recipient.
Megan Phelps-Roper
Megan Phelps-Roper (born 1986), granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, tweeted for the Topeka church before leaving it in November 2012 with sister Grace; author of Unfollow, TED speaker, producer of The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling podcast.
Mitzi Perdue
Mitzi Perdue (née Henderson, born 1941), American author, rice farmer, and anti-human-trafficking advocate; founder of Win This Fight, past president of American Agri-Women, Scripps Howard environmental columnist, and Ukraine war correspondent honored with Ukraine's Order of Princess Olga.
Mohsen Mahdawi (محسن مهداوي)
Mohsen Mahdawi (محسن مهداوي), Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student, arrested by ICE at his 2025 Vermont naturalization interview, freed by Judge Crawford, and still fighting a 2026 removal order to Jordan.
Najeeb Muhammad (നജീബ് മുഹമ്മദ്)
Najeeb Muhammad (നജീബ് മുഹമ്മദ്), Kerala labourer from Arattupuzha, real-life subject of Benyamin's novel Aadujeevitham (Goat Days) and the 2024 film; kidnapped in Saudi Arabia 1992, held as an unpaid goatherd, escaped 1995 and deported.
Narendra Dabholkar
Narendra Dabholkar (1945-2013), Indian medical doctor, rationalist, and founder-president of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS/ANiS), who drafted the Maharashtra anti-superstition bill and was shot dead in Pune on 20 August 2013, days before the ordinance passed.
Peter Brimelow
Peter Brimelow (born 1947), British-American financial journalist, author of Alien Nation (1995), and founder of VDARE.com, a leading anti-immigration and white nationalist-adjacent website suspended in 2024.
Philomena Lee
Philomena Lee, Irish woman separated from her son Anthony at Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, in the 1950s; subject of Martin Sixsmith's 2009 book and the 2013 Oscar-nominated film Philomena; advocate for adoption-record access and Philomena's Law.
Prakash Amte (प्रकाश बाबा आमटे)
Prakash Amte (प्रकाश बाबा आमटे), Indian physician and social worker, born 1948, son of Baba Amte; runs Lok Biradari Prakalp at Hemalkasa, Gadchiroli, with wife Mandakini since 1974; Ramon Magsaysay Award (2008) and Padma Shri recipient.
Rachael Denhollander
Rachael Denhollander, American attorney, author, and advocate, first woman to publicly accuse USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in 2016; author of What Is a Girl Worth?; delivered final sentencing statement.
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie (1979–2003) was an American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while protecting a Palestinian home from demolition.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin
Rachel Goldberg-Polin, American-Israeli educator and activist, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, taken October 7, 2023 from the Nova festival and murdered in Gaza in August 2024; TIME100 2024, Lantos Prize 2025, memoir When We See You Again.
Rania Khalek
Rania Khalek is a Lebanese-American journalist based in Beirut who hosts Dispatches and co-hosts BT Live on BreakThrough News, reporting on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy.
Rennie Davis
Rennie Davis (Rennard Cordon Davis, 1940-2021) was an SDS leader, MOBE project director, and Chicago Seven defendant convicted of inciting a riot and later overturned on appeal; he later followed Guru Maharaj Ji and worked on environmental projects.
Ridvan Aydemir
Ridvan Aydemir, known online as Apostate Prophet, is a Turkish-German ex-Muslim YouTuber born in Germany, formerly devout Sunni Muslim, then atheist, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 2025, critiquing Islam and debating apologists.
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a K'iche' Maya human rights activist from Guatemala. She won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on indigenous rights and social justice.
Rouhollah Zamzameh
Rouhollah Zamzameh, known as Rouhollah Zam (روحالله زم), Iranian dissident journalist and founder of the Telegram channel Amadnews; exiled in France, abducted from Iraq in 2019, executed by Iran on 12 December 2020.
Roy Jeffs
Roy Jeffs (Leroy Barlow Jeffs, 1992-2019), a son of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, left the sect in February 2014 and publicly described his father's abuses before dying by suicide at age 26.
Rula Daood
Rula Daood (רולא דאוד), born 1985 in Kafr Yasif, is a Palestinian Christian citizen of Israel, former speech therapist, and national co-director of Standing Together with Alon-Lee Green since 2019; TIME100 Next 2024 honoree and 2026 co-founder of the A Place for Us All party.
Russell Means
Russell Means (Oglala Lakota, 1939–2012), AIM leader who led the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, later an actor in The Last of the Mohicans and author of Where White Men Fear to Tread.
Sabina Wurmbrand
Sabina Wurmbrand, born Sabina Oster, was a Romanian-born evangelist imprisoned under communism who co-founded The Voice of the Martyrs with her husband Richard and wrote The Pastor's Wife.
Saima Wazed
Saima Wazed (সায়মা ওয়াজেদ), Bangladeshi school psychologist and autism advocate, daughter of Sheikh Hasina; WHO South-East Asia Regional Director February 2024 to September 2026, ending in fraud allegations, leave, and resignation.
Salwan Momika
Salwan Momika, Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist known for 2023 Quran burnings in Stockholm with Salwan Najem; deported in 2024, charged with hate speech, shot dead in Södertälje in January 2025.
Sam Childers
Sam Childers, the Machine Gun Preacher, is an American missionary and author who founded Angels of East Africa, an orphanage in Nimule, South Sudan, for children affected by the LRA; his armed-rescue claims are disputed by the SPLA.
Sarah Ransome
Sarah Ransome, South African-born Epstein and Maxwell survivor, sued in 2017 (settled 2018), testified at Maxwell's 2022 sentencing, and wrote the 2021 memoir Silenced No More; her 2016 sex-tape emails are disputed.
Shehla Rashid
Shehla Rashid Shora, Indian academic and former JNU students' union vice president (2015), led 2016 sedition-case protests, joined Shah Faesal's J&K People's Movement, faced a 2019 sedition case later withdrawn, and now teaches sociology in Budgam.
Sindhutai Sapkal
Sindhutai Sapkal (सिंधुताई सपकाळ), the 'Mother of Orphans', Indian social worker from Maharashtra who raised over a thousand orphans, founded multiple ashrams, and received the Padma Shri in 2021; died in Pune on 4 January 2022.
Somaya Bashir
Somaya Bashir (סומיה בשיר, born 1974) is an Arab-Israeli psychologist and activist from Jatt, founder of We Have No Other Land and Insan, Women Wage Peace leader, and the first Arab woman elected to a realistic slot on Israel's Democrats party Knesset slate.
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Australian-American activist, founded SumOfUs (now Ekō) in 2011, led New Media Ventures 2020-2022, co-founded Golden Gate Institute for AI, and was Aaron Swartz's fiancée.