The U.K. Charity Commission, tasked with safeguarding the integrity of the charitable sector, has once again demonstrated its failure to act decisively against extremist abuse of charity status. Despite a growing body of evidence, the Commission has dragged its feet in shutting down Labaik Ya Zahra (LYZ), a U.K.-registered charity with clear ideological ties to the Iranian regime.
Iranian state media praised [LYZ trustee Syeda Umme Farwa] as a ‘Jihadi Lioness’ and a ‘faithful revolutionary woman'—honors that should alarm any responsible regulator.
It has now been over four months since major British newspapers, including The Times, published detailed investigations into LYZ’s activities. Yet, all the Commission has done is open a “compliance case” and offer the vague assurance that it is “engaging with the trustees.” This is not enforcement—it is evasion. The Commission, which answers only to Parliament, has shown a dismal, bureaucratic response. With no pressure coming from MPs, the regulatory body has failed to use its authority or moral obligation to address the growing threat posed by ideologically driven entities operating under the guise of religious tolerance.
This regulatory complacency appears even more striking in light of recent U.K. legislative changes. In July 2023, the UK’s new National Security Act received Royal Assent, giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies enhanced powers to tackle foreign interference.
Then-Security Minister Tom Tugendhat made clear that the Act was designed to empower authorities to act against individuals and organizations spreading the influence of hostile states. His successor, Dan Jarvis, reiterated this, explicitly naming Iran and noting that any actors operating on behalf of such regimes would need to register under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS). Yet blatant propagandists for Tehran continue to operate with impunity, mocking the legislation, even as they receive awards from sanctioned Iranian bodies like the IRGC.
LYZ, which did not respond to an inquiry from Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), is a U.K. registered charity with its main office based in Stanmore, North London—just minutes from a synagogue—and operates in London and six other major cities. The charity claims to promote education, human rights, and religious harmony.
However, public records and multiple media investigations suggest something very different. According to The Times, one of its trustees, listed as Syeda Umme Farwa (whose full name is Syeda Umme Farwa Naqvi), has allegedly used the charity as a platform to openly support and promote the Iranian regime and even visited Tehran on behalf of the charity. Farwa and another LYZ trustee were allegedly filmed at a meeting with Second Brigadier General Majid Hashemi-Dana, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), The Times reported, adding that Hashemi-Dana runs “Defa Press, a state news agency overseen by Iran’s armed force.”
The Times reported that Farwa declared in an interview that, “I know all the work we [at LYZ] have done and are doing is from the perspective of Imam Khomeini [the late supreme leader of Iran]. Now that I am here with you, I am 100 per cent certain that it is backed by the spirit of Imam Khomeini. The souls of martyrs, righteous people [clerics] … always follow those who are behind them and those who want to build the world based off their ideas.”
According to Quds Online, a regime newspaper, Farwa traveled to Iran in 2018 and accepted the Goharshad Award from Ebrahim Raisi, the hardline Iranian president implicated in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. Iranian state media praised her as a “Jihadi Lioness” and a “faithful revolutionary woman”—honors that should alarm any responsible regulator.
Such meetings and statements are incompatible with the charity’s stated mission but are not accidental associations. These are open, ideological alignments with a hostile state—one that promotes “Death to England” chants and celebrates attacks on British interests, often backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which U.K. officials have yet to designate as a terrorist organization.
Yet, the U.K.’s charitable watchdog, which has not responded to an inquiry from FWI, has done little to confront this. Instead of enforcing existing regulations or using newly granted powers under the National Security Act, it has defaulted to a position of inertia.
This failure is not a one-off event. It signals a broader institutional failure: a regulatory regime unwilling to confront extremist abuse unless publicly shamed into action—and even then, rarely moving beyond the hollow label of “under investigation.” Meanwhile, foreign state-aligned operatives are exploiting British legal and charitable frameworks with astonishing ease and disturbing intent.
