NCRI – On September 6, the Iranian opposition satellite channel Simay-e-Azadi (IranNTV) broadcasted the election ceremony for members of the new leadership of Iran’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI (Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK). The new entity is called the Central Council composed of a thousand women members of the organization.
The news broadcast, along with detailed videos from the ceremony itself, was aired on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the PMOI (MEK).
The election of the PMOI’s Central Council indicates a new expansion in the Iranian Resistance in its campaign to unseat the fundamentalist dictatorship ruling Iran. An important feature of this institution is that it includes young women who were all born after the 1979 revolution. This carries an especially effective message to young Iranian women to intensify their struggle against the mullahs.
In a message on Google+, on September 6, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, said: “This is a gift for the Iranian society that sends a message to young people, especially women that uprising for freedom is your responsibility and rests on your shoulders.”
She added, “The prevailing message of the PMOI’s Central Council extends to our sisters in prisons and all arisen women seeking equality and freedom.”
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) was founded in 1965 to combat the Shah’s dictatorship and to establish freedom and democracy. An important concept of the PMOI was demarcation from Islamic fundamentalism. This was the cornerstone of an effective struggle that later made the PMOI (MEK) the most important force against fundamentalist forces and as the pivotal force of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the democratic alternative to the mullahs’ regime.
The Iranian Resistance in subsequent years announced its commitment to the principle of separation of church and state and declared the mullahs’ Sharia Law to be invalid. This was a unique and unprecedented cultural leap for all Muslim nations that could only have come about from a Muslim movement.
By defending what it calls “democratic Islam,” the PMOI (MEK) removed one of the biggest obstacles to freedom in Iran.
Another major achievement of the PMOI (MEK) has been its defense of gender equality. It has shown its commitment to this notion in its political action: The PMOI (MEK) is led by women, and more than 50 percent of the Iranian Resistance’s parliament-in-exile is comprised of women.
The history of the PMOI’s struggle also includes its defense of the rights and freedoms of oppressed and discriminated ethnical minorities (Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, Lors, Turkmen, etc.) This is imperative for solidarity in multiethnic Iran. It is therefore natural for a movement like the PMOI (MEK) to have different ethnicities present at all its leadership levels.
Finally the important work of the PMOI (MEK) and the Iranian Resistance has been to present a platform for the future that is based on the common will of Iranians with various tendencies: A republic based on the separation of church and state, pluralism, abolition of the death penalty, gender equality, a non-nuclear Iran, and friendship and coexistence with its neighbors.
In recent years, an unparalleled movement was led by Maryam Rajavi that managed to remove the bogus terrorism label from the PMOI (MEK), gaining much international attention. But the PMOI’s decisive role is in its popular base within the Iranian society; the same movement that according to senior officials of the mullahs’ judiciary was the main force forming the core of the uprisings in 2009. The mullahs have since then passed a law – guilt by association – condemning to death anyone with links to the PMOI (MEK) and its allies. The regime’s slogan, in all their official ceremonies, is “Death to PMOI”, which they see as their main enemy.
The PMOI’s struggle against the regime, naturally, has come at a heavy price. Some 120,000 members and activists of the movement have been killed in this struggle. All sorts of lies have been disseminated against the PMOI (MEK) by the regime to demonize the group. Logically, with this level of suppression, the PMOI (MEK) should have long been destroyed. But the persistence of the Mojahedin, and the fact that they are the hope for freedom in Iran, has a specific reason: The people of Iran want to get rid of the mullahs’ regime and want to establish freedom and democracy in Iran.
