Samantha Power, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations in President Barack Obama’s second term, has said supporters of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal went soft on the regime’s human rights abuses.
In a shocking admission on September 11, 2019, Ali Khoda’i, a member of the regime’s Supreme Council on Labor told Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards’ terrorist Qods Force, “3.5 million workers work in underground workshops. Their statistics are not recorded anywhere. These workshops are unofficial and unmarked. Tailors on Jomhouri […]
The true story of a young freedom-loving Iranian man
The story of “A Little Prince in the Land of the Mullahs” is a graphic novel about the Iranian youth’s fight for freedom. Published by “Société des écrivains” publishers and prefaced by Ingrid Betancourt, this new graphic book is the story of Ahmad, an intrepid young Iranian, driven by the ideals of freedom, shared happiness and equality.
Carried by the hope of one day making them known to his country and people, he faced the violence of the totalitarian regime of the mullahs, risking his life in a long and difficult struggle that took him to prison.
Ahmad Raouf-Basharidoust, born in 1964 to a middle-class family and raised in northern Iran, tells of his childhood in Shah’s Iran, the 1979 revolution and Khomeini’s rise to power. He goes on to depict the circumstances in which this intelligent…
It was widely reported on Tuesday that an Iranian woman had died in the hospital approximately a week after setting herself on fire outside the courthouse where the judgment was pending in a case initiated against her after she tried to enter a stadium in defiance of the longstanding ban on female attendance at men’s sporting events.
The woman in question was reportedly 30 years old in March when she followed the lead of many other female soccer fans and women’s rights activists by dressing in men’s clothing in an effort to slip past guards and watch a match featuring her favorite team, Esteghlal F.C. But after being identified at the gate, the “Blue Girl” — so-called because of the team’s official color and the color of the dress she was wearing at the time of her self-immolation — was arrested and charged with “offending public chastity” and “insulting law enforcement officers.”
Family of the Blue Girl were willing to comment publicly upon her case in the days after she doused herself with gasoline and incurred burns on as much as 90 percent of her body. However, they did so anonymously, declining to expose the woman’s identity. She has consequently been referred to by a pseudonym in the media — sometimes Sahar Kodayari and sometimes Sara. But ignorance of her true name has not prevented Iranian activists and public personas from expressing sympathy on social media, sometimes while sharing images purportedly showing her heavily bandaged in the hospital bed where she would later die.
On the other hand, these images and pseudonyms generally appeared only on independent news channels and largely banned social media networks within the Islamic Republic. Although picked up and shared widely in Western and international media, the Blue Girl’s case has reportedly been almost completely ignored by Iranian state media and by semi-official news outlets. In fact, one of the only references to Kodayari’s death in conservative Iranian media specifically blamed “counterrevolutionary media” for the publicity surrounding her case.
The overall silence of state media outlets has been reflected in the response, or lack thereof, from government officials.
To the extent that it has been conveyed to international media, much of that support has focused on condemning the draconian social restrictions and overzealous enforcement that led to Kodayari being charged with criminal offenses in the first place.
In its statement regarding the case, Amnesty International noted that Kodayari would surely be alive today if the Iranian regime had not demonstrated a pattern of ruthlessness in its prosecution of women for violating gender segregation rules and forced veiling laws. Although wearing a wig as part of her male disguise at the time of her arrest, Kodayari was also charged with “bad hijab,” implying that her hair was deemed to be inadequately concealed.
Last month, United Nations human rights experts issued a joint statement condemning the lengthy sentences given to three women who had protested against compulsory veiling by handing out roses on a women-only subway car.
The tragic death of a young woman who self-immolated to protest against the mullahs’ suppression, discrimination, & deprivation of women while heartbreaking to all Iranians, only adds to the resolve of women & men in #Iran to overthrow this religious tyranny & establish freedom.
For years, Iran’s regime has incessantly used terrorism as a blackmailing tool and has never ceased it. Its recent seizure of the British oil tanker and its continued support of the vicious Bashar al-Assad regime and terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis, proves the fact that terrorism is institutionalized within this regime. Is the regime’s terrorism limited to its neighboring countries? Is it simply against its dissidents? What is solution? These are the questions we intend to answer in this article.
Iran’s terrorism and assassinations of its political opponents
Iran’s regime has not only oppressed its opponents inside Iran but has carried out dozens of terrorist plots abroad against them, particularly in Europe. The most recent example was a failed bombing plot in Paris, France, in 2018 against the annual “Free Iran” gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, NCRI. The attack was planned by the diplomats of the regime in Europe.
The regime’s embassies in Europe, are proven to be centers of terrorism and espionage and have played a key role in Iran’s assassinations.
On April 24, 1990, in Geneva, several agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of Iran murdered in broad daylight, Prof. Kazem Rajavi, the representative of the NCRI in Switzerland.
Rajavi’s assassination required enormous resources, extensive planning, and coordination among several of the regime’s organizations. After thorough investigations, Roland Chatelaine, the Swiss magistrate in charge of the case, and Swiss judicial and police officials confirmed the role of Iran’s government under Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then-president of the regime, and the participation of thirteen official agents of the Iranian regime who had used “service passports” to enter Switzerland for their plot.
A partial list of terrorist attacks conducted by the Iranian regime abroad include the following:
Assassination Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic party, in Vienna, Austria, in 1989
The assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Prime Minister of the Shah regime, in Suresnes, France 1991
The assassination of Kurdish opposition leaders in Berlin, Germany, in 1992
The kidnapping and mutilation of Ali Akbar Ghorbani, MEK member, in Turkey, in 1992
The assassination of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, NCRI member, in Rome, Italy, in 1993
The assassination of Zahra Rajabi, NCRI member, in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996
Iran’s use of terrorism as a blackmailing tool
the Iranian regime has a long history of attempting to carry out terrorist operations in foreign countries for putting pressure on the western governments to pursue the policy of appeasement.
An example is the bombing of the barracks of U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983 which was conducted by the Revolutionary Guards Corps, IRGC.
Four years later, on July 20, 1987, Mohsen Rafiqdoust, the former IRGC Minister, officially stated, “Americans know that the explosive that combined with that ideology and sent 400 American soldiers and officers to hell, both the ideology and the explosive material came from Iran.”
to the long list of regime’s terrorist activities, we could add: The Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in the mid-90s, and the Jewish community in Argentina in 1994.
Iran’s regime also takes foreign nationals as hostages and uses them as bargaining chips to put pressure on their countries of origin. This practice continues to this day.
What is the solution?
After reviewing Iran’s regime history of terrorism, it becomes clear that this regime will continue its terrorism, unless firmly confronted.
Recent approach of the European countries and their persistence on the appeasement policy only emboldens this regime to continue its nefarious activities. Europe should realize that the Iranian regime’s terrorism is not limited to Iranian dissidents—it also threatens European countries and their citizens.
But the main question is: Does terrorism show the Iranian regime’s strength or is a sign of weakness? It is clear that a popular, pluralistic and well-established government never seeks terrorism or destabilizing other countries. The actions of Iran’s regime are desperate moves to export its internal problems abroad and continue is blackmailing campaign.
The solution lies in standing firm against the Iranian regime’s state-sponsored terrorism.
Hezbollah terrorist militias backed by the Iranian regime
On September 6, Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a statement confirmed their drone attack to a military base in “Khamis Mashit” in the “Asir” area of southern Saudi Arabia.
VOA Persian reported on September 5 that the Iraqi Hezbollah, which is an Iranian regime affiliate, is trying to control the international airport.
The Iraqi Hezbollah has repeatedly expressed its loyalty to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
In an interview with the Euronews Farsi section, on September 5, Hossain Shariatmadari, editor in chief of the Supreme Leader–linked Keyhan news agency, said, “I believe criticizing Iran over its help to the resistance groups and leaving poor Iranians, it is necessary for our security, it is our priority.” “I don’t consider some of the regional countries as a ‘country.’ If for instance, Hezbollah or Ansar-ol-allah [Houthis] launch a missile, countries like Qatar will get lost. Soon this will happen,” he threatened.
On August 31, in an interview with Mehr News, an Iranian state-run news outlet, Akram al-Kabi, head of the Iraqi Al-Nojaba terrorist organization, threatened other nations in the region and presented himself as Iraq’s representative and said, “When everyone neglected helping us, it was the Islamic Republic that opened its doors to us.”
“We confidently say that our movement follows Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and we don’t hide this,” al-Kabi added.
For the past 40 years, the Iranian regime has never ceased funding its proxy terrorist groups across the region, and as the U.S. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department Sigal Mandelker said in May 2019, “Iran provides upward of $700 million a year to Hezbollah.”
While the regime continues its support of terrorism, the people of Iran grapple with absolute poverty and regularly protest against the regime’s warmongering policies.
Today,
after 40 years of religious dictatorship in Iran’s political arena, this regime
is besieged by crises in all political, social and economic areas, and so on.
The Iranian society is also inflamed and ready to revolt against the Velayat-e
Faqih (absolute rule of the mullahs) regime.
In such circumstances, what reassures the Iranian people of the future of a country with its enormous role in civilization, culture and human history is the existence of a democratic alternative to this religious dictatorship in the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The NCRI coalition, comprised of Iranian political organizations, groups and personalities, was founded in 1982 by Massoud Rajavi, the historical PMOI leader, in Tehran. From 1992 onward, after being elected by the NCRI, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi has been the NCRI President-elect for the transition era to the people following the overthrow of the mullahs’ dictatorial regime.
The PMOI was founded on September 6, 1965, by three university graduates.
54 years later, on the anniversary of the MEK founding, with more than five decades of resistance against a dictatorship, with an organized structure and having an extensive network checkered across Iran, parallel to its committed members, the PMOI/MEK has become Iran’s only hope for the future.
The
hope gained by the Mojahedin’s massive sacrifice over more than five decades of
their glorious life.
The sacrifice that began with the execution of the organization founders, and many of its members and leadership by the Shah’s regime, followed with the execution of more than 120,000 PMOI/MEK members and sympathizers, including the summer 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in prisons around the country by the mullah’s regime.
The
MEK has also played an unparalleled role in the fight against terrorism and the
mullahs’ warfare, and in preserving international peace by exposing the
regime’s nuclear and missile program, along with its offensive warfare and its
destructive and terrorist activities in the Middle East and across the globe.
Outside Iran, in Europe, the US and Canada, and even across to Australia, tens of thousands of MEK supporters have always shown widespread support for the MEK by attending large annual rallies or marches and demonstrations in various cities around the world.
Furthermore,
a large number of political figures, MPs, leaders and members of various
communities and unions in Europe, America, Canada to Asia, the Middle East and
Australia have repeatedly supported and solidified with the Iranian Resistance
movement led by the PMOI/MEK and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.
The
Iranian Resistance President-elect has declared the movement’s network of
Resistance Units.
Within
Iran, the MEK’s Resistance Units have been leading the protests and uprisings
of various strata of the Iranian people, and have played a leading role in
guiding popular protests against the dictatorship.
In such circumstances, having comprehensive plans and programs to solve the most pressing problems of the Iranian society, and organizing a large network of resistance units and Iranian people inside and outside Iran who support the MEK’s programs and at the beginning of the 55th year of the MEK existence, has become the sole hope of the Iranian people for the establishment of freedom, democracy, human rights and justice in the NCRI democratic axis.
This
hope will soon come true for the overthrow of the mullahs’ dictatorial regime
in Iran.
Image processed by CodeCarvings Piczard ### FREE Community Edition ### on 2018-12-10 20:18:05Z | |
While the world follows closely U.S.-Iran tensions in the Middle East, and Iran’s breaching of the 2015 nuclear deal, one shouldn’t forget about the gross human rights violations in Iran.
According to statistics published by the state-run media, human rights activists including the Human Rights Monitor (HRM), Iran’s regime continues executions and holds the record of execution per capita.
According to the HRM, in the first six months of 2019, Iran announced 99 executions. This includes two women and eight public executions. In addition, HRM reported that in 2019, at least three of the executed people were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest.
The Iranian regime is the world record holder of executing women and minors. According to a report by the Amnesty International, two of the executed minors in April were also condemned to lashing.
The Iranian Regime’s Judiciary condemns political activists and Iranian dissidents, under the term of “Moharebeh” or waging war against God, and “Mofsed-e-fel Aarz” or corruption on Earth. The regime frequently uses these charges for condemning the supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, MEK). In May 2018, Mohammad Mogheyseh head of the regime’s 28th branch of Tehran Revolutionary Court, condemned Abdollah Ghasempour, 34 years old, to execution for having relationships with the MEK.
The Iranian regime has a record of political purges and executions. In the summer of 1988, more than 30,000 members and supporters of the MEK and other dissident groups were executed with a Fatwa (religious decree), issued by the regime’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. After nearly 30 years, there are very few signs of their burial locations.
A quick glance at the Iranian regime’s systematic human rights violation sparks this question that shouldn’t European powers include human rights in their political relations and negotiations with the regime?
Do EU governments care about the human rights in Iran, in particular the 1988 massacre, as much as they are interested in creating a mechanism to fund this regime and continue their business with it?
It is high time that in any negotiations or relations with dictatorial regimes, such as the one in Iran, human rights be the central condition.
The Iranian regime is known for its unreasonable crackdown on what it considers unacceptable behaviour. Over the past few days, the country’s security forces stormed a number of mixed gender parties in the city of Sari in the north of the country.
As a result of these raids, 35 young Iranians were arrested. State media outlets have reported that 10 of these young people are women.
The people of Iran have no freedom in most parts of their lives. To attend a party or celebration in which both sexes are present is just one such example. Regime officials themselves, of course, are not subject to such mistreatment.
A state media outlet had reported that the week previous to these latest arrests, there were a number of other raids in which more than 52 people were arrested. A source had told the agency that those arrested were young and dressed inappropriately.
The people of Iran have to live by very strict rules and moral codes and the regime does not hesitate to send agents out to the street to carry out mass arrests. Young people have been arrested for having hairstyles considered “too Western” or for dressing in a way that the regime does not approve of.
The Iranian regime also obliges women to be veiled in public. This is something that the people of Iran, both men and women, oppose. It is not the practice of wearing a veil that the people do not like – it is the fact that they are obliged to dress how the regime wants them to – the choice is out of their hands.
Women are not considered equal beings by the Iranian regime and it is certain that the authorities see them as a threat. The main opposition to the Iranian regime, the PMOI or MEK, is led by a woman and women have important roles and positions at all levels of the organisation.
At the end of July, the notorious IRGC announced that 20 women had been arrested. An IRGC official explained that it had “dismantled” a network of women that has the aim of “promoting a Western lifestyle”.
Over the past few years, in an attempt to get a handle on the widespread dissent that is present across the whole country, the regime is ordering crackdowns on the people. However, this strategy is not working for the regime because it is only making the people even more determined for freedom, human rights and democracy.
The people support the maximum pressure campaign that the United States is putting Iran under because they know that the more pressure the regime is subjected to, the sooner the regime will collapse. The people want the European governments to stop appeasing the regime because it is doing nothing but prolonging its existence, and by extension prolonging the misery of the people.
Furthermore, Europe prides itself on its respect of human rights and democracy, so it must ensure that it does not appease countries that ignore these core values.
As the Europeans try to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal,
formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and persist
on negotiations with Tehran, Iran’s regime, emboldened by the European
approach, vows to breach more of its commitments under the terms of the JCPOA.
On September 1, in an interview with the state-run Khabr-e Fori
news agency, Seyeed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, head of the Iranian Parliament’s
National Security commission, said that Javad Zarif, the Iranian regime’s
foreign minister, in session with this commission, underlined that if the
Europeans won’t take concrete measures to circumvent U.S. sanctions, Iran will
take its third step in breaching the JCPOA.
On September 1, in an interview with the state TV, Zarif
threatened Europe by saying, “If by Thursday, the Europeans wont’ take
necessary actions, we will take the third step in reducing our commitments
under the terms of the JCPOA.”
However, Zarif didn’t mention what is the action his regime
will take.
Meanwhile, the Europeans, while persisting on keeping the
JCPOA, urged Iran’s regime to abide by its commitments under the 2015 nuclear
deal.
As Iran analysts say, any weak approach toward the Iranian
regime, such as negotiations or giving it incentive packages, only emboldens
this regime to continue is destructive policies, maintaining the threat to the
peace and stability in the Middle East and the world.
Israeli warplanes are targeting sites in Syria on a weekly basis, including last Saturday. Israel is saying these attacks are aimed at preventing Iran’s blueprints of using drones to launch attacks into Israeli territory.
On Sunday, August 25, the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah said Tehran’s Shiite proxy groups in Iraq, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi (PMF/PMU), were targeted in airstrikes that left at least one commander killed and another severely injured.
Following the United States’ exit from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the rate of these attacks and threats, especially this last weekend from unmanned aircrafts, have increased by Tehran and U.S. allies across the region.
According to an Israeli military spokesperson, airstrikes by Israeli warplanes targeting Iran-backed forces near Damascus took place while these units were preparing armed to target areas inside Israel.
Operatives of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force and Tehran-backed Shiite militias were targeted in this strike…
As European countries seek one way or another to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and somehow continue to appease the Iranianregime, recent statements by Iran’s senior officials proved them to be on a wrong path.
On August 28, in an interview with the state-run Khabar-e-Fori news agency, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’sdeputy foreign minister, said, “Anyone would have withdrawn from the JCPOA as Trump did.”
While referring to Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis as “resistancegroups,” Araghchi said, “When they [world powers] signed the JCOPA, they entered a game that didn’t have any result for them; yet the Islamic Republic reached a new level of power in the Middle East and resistance groups weren’t weakened but empowered.”
On August 30, 2019, in a seminar in the Alborz province, Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of Iran’s atomic agency, admitted that the regime had secretly continued its nuclear program. “The JCPOA didn’t stop our nuclear deal and the history will prove this,” state-run Fars news agency quoted him as saying. “God willing, in two months, we’ll hear some good news about the Arak’s reactor,” Salehi added, referring to the heavy water reactor of Arak, which was supposed to be dismantled according to the JCPOA.
These comments show that any dialogue with the Iranian regime or granting it any privilege will only embolden this regime and won’t stop it from committing acts of terrorisms and undermining international peace and security.
The true story of a young freedom-loving Iranian man
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