Young people seek change in Iran – Baroness Betty Boothroyd

NCRI - Young Iranians who are fed up with the theocratic dictatorship in power in Iran are yearning for change, Baroness Betty Boothroyd, the former Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has said.

“The nuclear agreement with Iran does nothing to improve its appalling civil and human rights record. There's nothing in it that seeks to persuade the regressive regime to change, to look at itself, to improve its approach to the democratic process, the rule of law and to human rights. Nothing at all,” Baroness Boothroyd said at a conference on human rights in Iran at the Houses of Parliament on October 19.

"I happen to believe, and I have some evidence of it, that Iran's secular middle class want democracy, they have a yearning for some change, and they want to see progress, prosperity and be a properly accepted member of the international community. And I believe too that young people want to see change."

Baroness Boothroyd said the Iranian regime is denying the people of Iran their basic human rights.

“Forty years ago, I wore the black sash of the anti-apartheid movement, when most people had no human rights under South Africa's racist regime. And while I was parading outside South Africa House, with my black sash on and the policeman keeping an eye on me, I never expected to in my wildest dreams, to welcome Nelson Mandela to my country, as democratic leader of South Africa, when I was speaker of the Commons”, Baroness Boothroyd said.

“This only happened because defiant, determined and dedicated people in South Africa and elsewhere proved to the White supremacists that they were not immune to the forces of change. And I think it's in that spirit of defiance, I believe that Iran's theocracy is not immune to them now,” she added.

Former UK House of Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd and a delegation of British lawmakers on January 27, 2014 met and held talks with the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance Maryam Rajavi during their visit to the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris.

The high-level delegation of British lawmakers called for a full United Nations investigation into the September 1, 2013 Camp Ashraf massacre and urgent UN protection for thousands of members of the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, or MEK) in Camp Liberty, Iraq.

The British lawmakers described the Iranian regime’s interference in the region, especially in Iraq and Syria, as 'dangerous' and backed Mrs Rajavi’s proposal that a complete halt to the Iranian regime’s meddling in Syria is the sole solution to this crisis.

They expressed full support for Mrs Rajavi's 10-point plan for the future of Iran as the best guarantee for democracy and human rights as well as peace and tranquility in the region and the world.