“Today, the Iranian woman is the one who must have the leadership of this transition. And we have a woman [Maryam Rajavi who, for 40 years, has been organizing this movement,” said Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian Senator, and French-Colombian hostage, during her remarks at a conference in France’s National Assembly in February. The event was held in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and Resistance and was attended by renowned French personalities and members of parliament from different political groups.
Below are the translated remarks of Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, revised and edited for clarity:
I know that you are very busy and that it is a very special day, and I thank you for making this digression and for leaving this fascinating issue of pensions to focus for a few moments on an equally fascinating issue since it embodies all our values and all our principles. This is the record of human lives sacrificed in Iran by a theocratic terrorist dictatorship. And I believe that for all of us, Democratic-Republicans, it is truly a moment of reflection on others. Obviously, it is on ourselves that I think we have to reflect.
I have to say that being here, I remembered the first time I was invited to a similar conference in defense of the Iranian resistance, it was a few months after my release, and I was invited by a man we all admire and who has left us, Elie Wiesel, he was an extraordinary man. Finally, I must say that whenever I am in an Iranian resistance meeting, I often think of him because I wonder if I would have continued, if I hadn’t had this moral authority who had opened up the space for me to make contact, to make friends with the Iranian resistance.
I say this because after this conference in which I spoke, and I must say that I was quite frail, I was coming out of six-and-a-half years of captivity, I was coming out of the hands of communist terrorists, I still had scars everywhere I was inundated, buried in insults and criticism. I was talking about it a moment ago with Dominique [Attias] because we shared this experience all of us. Every time we come to the defense of the Iranian resistance, we are immediately targeted personally in a very violent way. It bothered me a lot. I said to myself that maybe I was wrong, and I took it upon myself to read and try to find out why I was there and projected all that I had understood in life to see what was the truth, to seek the truth.
Obviously, I knew terrorism, communism, and violence. So I started to read about this resistance, to understand the movement, to understand the history. Little by little, I started to see something different, which echoed my personal experience, which was that the critics who were against me but who were also against the movement always had a signature narrative that was inconvenient because I found it terribly misogynistic. In fact, I believe there is a lot of misogyny in the talking points against this movement. I remember pondering the term cult. They were talking about this woman I had just known, Maryam Rajavi, and the critics were saying that she was a leader of a cult leading this group of totally naive, manipulated people without information.
There, I made a stop because I, myself, was the victim of this kind of attack; when you’re a woman and you’re in public life, you’re attacked in a different way. Attacks on men and attacks on women are never the same.
For women, it’s always about manipulation. I remember, for example, when I was released, to have been treated harshly, and I continue to do so moreover because it is always on the agenda, a lie which was the one that I, an unconscious woman and reckless, had done everything to get myself kidnapped by the FARC and it was, therefore, my fault.
When I came back, trying to talk after six-and-a-half years, about a lie, about a narrative that had been repeated for years, trying to make people understand that I had no interest, and I wasn’t that person at all. It was very, very difficult. Because there was the image that had been put on the internet, which had been publicized and tried to make people resonate in another way was difficult. And that’s when I said to myself, I want to get closer; I want to understand who the Iranian Resistance [members] are.
There came the personal encounter with these women, and these men too, but many of these women that we see here with Maryam Rajavi, who, in fact, have taken the leadership of the movement and who are the face of this movement. I wanted to understand who they were and why did they take this fight? What was the price they had paid? Why did they continue after decades of opposition far from home, far from their native country? How come they were still able to fight?
Because it’s true that when time passes, it’s hard to continue, that’s when I understood things, such as the fact that, yes, when you are faced with terrorist organizations and a terrorist state, you have to organize yourself. We do not have the right not to organize in the face of an attack by a terrorist force. And for the Iranian resistance, getting organized also means having the hierarchical structure necessary to deal with all this instigation, this disinformation, these attempts at infiltration, these murders.
I say this knowingly since I was actually there in June 2018, the day the Iranian government had sent its diplomats and these spies to kill us in an attack that was to take place in Villepinte and which, if they succeeded, we wouldn’t be here to talk about it.
So for me, the relationship that I have with this resistance, I want to share it with you because I know that we have all been misinformed, or at least we have tried to do so, that it is hard to take sides.
On my side, I tell myself that if there are so many attacks, it is because we are on the good side, and that reassures me. When I see what is happening today in Iran and that it is women who are making this revolution, that it is they who are at the forefront, who are fighting against these misogynistic terrorists, criminals, and murderous mullahs. Well, I am very proud to be here with you, to be able to testify, to be able to tell you also that I know Maryam Rajavi, that she is a friend.
I got to know her over time, I’ve been accompanying you for many years, more than ten years, and the relationship I have with Maryam Rajavi is very personal. As women, we two have suffered a lot. We made commitments. I always admired the fact that she never surrendered, she continues, and I tell myself that one day I want to see her where she should be. That is to say, in Iran. I want her to be the figure who will succeed in putting real democracy back in the hands of Iranians. I want her to make the transition.
I must also share with you my astonishment because I do not understand how our governments see this organization, which for 40 years has been fighting and denouncing – they are the ones who gave information to the United Nations on the nuclear program of the mullahs’ government. They are the ones who gave the information from the inside of what is happening in Iran. They denounce the violation of human rights, denounce the hangings, the assassinations, and the summary executions.
We understood that there had been a genocide in 1988 thanks to this movement which showed us the graves, which showed us the people who had survived this massacre and who are today very important witnesses for us, to be able to remember what happened in Iran.
Well, now that there is this revolution and Western governments are forced to ask themselves the question of the transition. Well, it is as if they wanted to ignore this movement. And we have to unite…Hey, wait! It is all the same as this resistance that has united Iran’s opposition for years. So I ask myself the question, and I say it with all frankness, and I say it here in front of all of you, are we not, too, in our Western societies, a little misogynistic? If [Maryam Rajavi] was a man, wouldn’t we take her more seriously? Do you have to be a man to have the right to confront tyranny and dictators? Do you have to be a man to have the credibility to talk about your suffering? Do you have to be a man to have the right to make the transition to a democratic world?
I claim women’s rights. Today, the Iranian woman is the one who must have the leadership of this transition. And we have a woman who, for 40 years, has been organizing this movement. If it weren’t organized the way she organized it, there wouldn’t be a revolution today, a protest against the atrocious murder of Mahsa Amini. Nor would there be the possibility, as is being debated today, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards being considered a terrorist organization. Ultimately, all that work carries what we’re seeing right now. And all of a sudden, we are told we will have to look elsewhere. I raise the debate because I believe that we know what is happening in this movement, as those following this movement closely for years.
I believe we have a duty. The duty, first of all, is to defend the hope of the Iranians. Hope is such an important thing. And this hope has a name, and it has a face. And I believe that we must do everything so that the doors of our governments, here in Europe and in the United States, that all these governments which have seen Maryam fight like a lioness, have the courage to accompany her. And it is up to us to push these doors. And I wanted to take this moment that we all have together to ask you to unite. It’s time for women. And we have the men to make sure that all of us together can finally give the history of humanity the opportunity to do something beautiful and just give back what is right and to tell us that finally, the misogynistic mullahs can be overthrown by women.