Firouz Mahvi: Global solidarity needed with Iranian people

NCRI - The following is the text of a speech by Mr. Firouz Mahvi, member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), at a meeting on October 7 on human rights in Iran at the European Parliament in Strasbourg:

Mr. Chairman,

Thank you very much for organizing this important meeting today on the occasion of the European Day against Death penalty.

As you know Iran executes more people in the world than any other country except China. But it is number one per capita, with over 2000 executions since Hassan Rouhani became president. This is not nothing to be proud of. The regime claims that these people are drug traffickers. The reality is that many young people who are protesting against the mullahs are executed under this excuse. Several political prisoners have been hanged recently. Many executions are done in public. This creates an atmosphere of fear and terror.

At the same time repression against women has increased under Rouhani. Apart from many acid attacks, there are many repressive regulations imposed on women. Last week a new video clip appeared on YouTube which showed that in a marriage ceremony, the security forces in Iran arrested the bride and took her to prison because she did not dress properly. The regime interferes in the private lives of the people every day. Several women activists have recently received long-term prison sentences.

This week, in which we have the European Day against Death Penalty, we should remember a young woman, Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was hanged in Iran on 25 October last year. When she was 19 years old, she worked as a decorator to earn a living and after she defended herself against an assault by an intelligence official of the regime, she was jailed for seven years and was executed last year despite an international campaign to save her. Even the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, issued a statement on 8 October last year to prevent her execution but unfortunately the regime did not listen. This really shook millions of people in Iran. It is ironic that that she was hanged under this so-called moderate president.

We Iranians are not easily deceived by such labels. Moderation has a meaning. Moderation is not just smiling and saying nice words. The reality is that we have a religious theocracy which is impossible to be reformed. We do not have a good mullah and bad mullah. There are many conflicts and infighting between different factions of the regime. But one thing they have in common is their common goal to save this regime. And to save this religious dictatorship, this regime needs to keep up repression. For their survival, they need to repress women and they need to execute people in public. Otherwise people will rise up to overthrow them.

Therefore we should have a correct policy to help the Iranian people who are suffering under the mullahs. The main issue for the people of Iran with the mullahs was not the nuclear issue. It never was. The main problem has been the human rights violations, the lack of freedom, repression against women and also corruption and poverty. As long as the mullahs are in power these things will never be solved.

It is interesting to know that after the nuclear deal, there is no indication of any improvement in human rights. In fact more people have been executed recently.

At the same time the regime is also focusing to eliminate the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (Mojahedin Khalq, PMOI, MEK) and especially those PMOI (MEK) members in Iraq inCamp Liberty near Baghdad airport. There is a medical siege imposed on the residents by Iraqi forces which means that many patients who need to go to hospitals and specialist doctors are prevented. As a result, 27 of the residents have died because of this medical siege. Even though the government of Nuri Maliki has gone and the new Prime Minister is making some reforms in Iraq, but as far as Camp Liberty is concerned, nothing has changed and the same criminals who used to massacre our people in Camp Ashraf are in charge of Camp Liberty. For example the National Security Adviser of the Prime Minister is Faleh Fayyaz, and he had the same role under Maliki and he is still in charge of Camp Liberty and is very close to the Iranian regime. These Iranian agents are getting their orders from Tehran and they want to make life intolerable for the residents.

For example, the Iranian regime has been sending some agents to Camp Liberty and introducing them as relatives of the residents. They are used to put psychological pressure on the residents. They did the same thing in Camp Ashraf. We need to call on the Iraqi government to end such repressive policies against these Iranian opposition members in Camp Liberty.

To conclude I wish to say that international solidarity with the people of Iran is very important for us. The people of Iran feel very bitter and disappointed when European politicians and ministers go to Iran and do not even say a word about human rights and just talk about business. This is not good for the image of Europe and it also encourages the Iranian regime to continue repression. So we need to emphasize that any relationship with Iran must be conditioned to an end to executions and end to repression against women.

Thank you.