Distinguished Members of Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I want to thank the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Shaqayeq Azimi, and I am a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, or MEK).
I was informed a few days ago that my parents have been arrested in Iran on October 11 due to the activities of my sister and I and for being supporters and sympathizers of the PMOI (MEK).
Both my parents are ex-political prisoners. My mother suffers from MS and she has spent many years behind bars and under torture both in 1980s and in recent years. In early 2009 she was rearrested and spent two years in prison solely for visiting me and my sister in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. She faces severe risks currently both due to her health and also circumstances enforced in prison.
As I mentioned before, my father is also an ex-political prisoner, persecuted both during the Shah's time and under the Mullahs’ rule.
But the price paid for freedom by our family isn’t limited to the prison and torture our parents have faced over these decades. My cousin, Nastaran Azimi, a computer major in Tehran University, escaped Iran after being imprisoned for her student activities and went to Camp Ashraf, but unfortunately she was killed in the deadly attack on April 8, 2011 by Iraqi forces on Camp Ashraf. She was only 23 years old.
In recent weeks many more families like mine have been arrested for supporting the PMOI (MEK).
While my family and others are suffering under torture in prison, European Ministers are rushing to Iran, shaking hands with those who are responsible for these atrocities, in hopes of gaining a few more economic deals. One has to ask, economic gains at what price? How long will the world turn a blind eye while dictators shed the blood of innocent people?!
Today I am here to be their voice; the voice of the voiceless. The voice of those prisoners who are suffering in the medieval prisons of the tyrannical regime ruling Iran.
A few days ago, the German Foreign Minister was in Iran. Despite high risks, a group of political prisoners, sent him a message before his trip asking him: "How can you expect a regime which not only doesn’t provide security for its own people but in fact kills them by the thousands and doesn’t know any borders in brutality and torture, to offer a solution for the regional and international security crisis which it has actually helped create?"
They further wrote “We the political prisoners do not welcome your visit to Tehran and your meetings with the Iranian regime’s officials. However, if you should decide to go ahead with this visit, we wish to invite you to pay a visit to the prisons and listen to our views on the regime’s role in the international security crisis.”
Another political prisoner sent a message to the President of the European Parliament before his scheduled meeting which has been postponed for the time being, and wrote: “It appears that you are scheduled to meet with leading figures in suppression, torture, execution and terrorism during your visit to Tehran. You will be shaking hands stained with the blood of Iranian people.”
So, I would like to call on all European governments, on behalf of my parents, and indeed all political prisoners and the Iranian people to not turn a blind eye on the human rights situation in Iran. While you are negotiating how to expand your trade with the mullahs’ regime, my fellow countrymen and women are being hanged from cranes in public streets.
And I would like to make a plea to you, the representatives of the British people; my request is for you to raise your voice and use all means in your power to be the voice of those suffering in Iran.
I thank you for all your support and your solidarity.
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