Over recent decades, the Iranian people have fought for freedom, democracy, social justice and equality, first against the Shah’s dictatorship and more recently against the mullahs’ theocracy.
We must ensure that Iranians enjoy the same freedoms as those of us lucky enough to live in the free world. Iran has been hijacked by fundamentalist clerics, who don’t support freedom for their people.
Iranian women and children are the principal victims of this regime, and it is really to them that I address these remarks. But also as are ethnic and religious minorities, homosexuals, political dissidents or indeed anyone not subservient to the system of ‘velayat e fagih’ or absolute rule of the clergy.
We have heard a great deal about the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses and the horrendous crimes against humanity. Women in Iran suffer discrimination from birth, solely because of their gender. Women are considered second-class citizens and are treated as such, but have always been an integral part of the freedom movement, and that I am enormously proud of. This is why; I have been so impressed by Iran’s main opposition movement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The NCRI is not only led by a woman, but women make up 50% of its membership.
The NCRI work tirelessly for a free Iran, one in which the brutal practices of stoning, public executions, flogging, eye gouging and limb amputations do not occur. An Iran where women are not discriminated against solely because of their gender, and people are not hung in public. This is why it is so impressive that Mrs Maryam Rajavi leads the resistance movement where women take the lead in positions of responsibility.
The Iranian Resistance has said time and time again that they want nothing from the international community. The only thing they ask is that we remain neutral in their struggle with the Iranian regime and refrain from legitimising it and thereby prolonging its rule. Our policy of constructive engagement has been counterproductive, as there is nothing constructive about our engagement with the mullahs.
If there had been, we wouldn’t have read reports of the shocking treatment of minors by the Iranian regime. I would like to refer to a recent ‘Sunday Telegraph’ article entitled “Under Iran’s ‘divinely ordained justice’, girls as young as nine are charged with ‘moral crimes’. The best that they can hope for is to die by hanging”. Dealing with a number of cases, it stated,
“Zhila Izadyar, a 13-year-old girl, has been sentenced to be stoned to death after her parents reported that she had had an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old brother and had become pregnant by him. Zhila has already received a ‘preliminary punishment’ of 53 lashes. [A thirteen year old girl] A representative from Iran’s Society for the Protection of Children’s Rights has managed to visit Zhila in prison. She found the 13-year-old in a desperate state, in solitary confinement and unable to keep down food. She has not been allowed to see her child. ‘I am scared. I want to go home,’ said Zhila. ‘I want to go back to school like the other children.’ But if Iran’s judges have their way, Zhila will see neither her school nor her home again. She will be buried up to her neck and the last thing she will see will be the stones hurtling towards her young head. Indeed, those who are disgusted by judicial decisions cannot even safely express their condemnation of a system that not only hangs children, but beats them to death in public: Kaveh Habibi-Nejad, a 14-year-old boy, [about whom our Lord Chairman referred] suffered this fate on November 12 for eating on the streets during Ramadan.” Eating on the streets during Ramadan!
I conclude by expressing my delight at the fact that over 1,000 British lawyers have recognised the fact that it is entirely illegal to have the People’s Mojahedin on the list of terrorist organisations, as they represent the Iranian people’s hopes and aspirations for a free and democratic Iran. It is about time that our government took notice of this.
