Lord Singh delivered his speech during a conference held at the United Kingdom’s Parliament on September 12, in support of the Iranian people’s uprising on its first anniversary.
Lord Singh highlighted the Iranian people’s staunch determination for a free, democratic, and secular Iran, citing previous uprisings in 2017 and 2019. He also noted that the regime has executed more than 120,000 people, including the infamous 1988 massacre, which has been recognized as a crime against humanity.
Lord Singh praised the organized resistance movement led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and her Ten-Point Plan as an ideal not only for Iran but for other countries facing human rights abuses. He called for continued support for the exposure of the Iranian regime’s atrocities and full support for the Iranian people in their quest for freedom.
The text of Lord Singh’s speech follows:
Thank you very much, Chair.
Friends, as we’ve been hearing, this Saturday, the 16th of September, marks the first anniversary of young Masha Amini being savagely beaten by the Iranian regime’s morality police on some flimsy grounds that she wasn’t wearing the Islamic dress correctly.
Her brutal killing was the spark for an uprising against the Iranian regime that has cost over 750 Iranian lives, including those of young children, as well as the arrest and torture of more than 30,000 innocent citizens, possibly facing the death penalty.
The conduct of the Iranian regime after 44 years of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of the 88 million people of Iran, who’ve never recognized the legitimacy of the regime, is unbelievable. We’ve seen again and again, Iranian people standing up to this regime and demanding its overthrow.
Before the uprising of 2022, we had the uprising of 2019, and before that, the uprising of 2017. The Iranian people have never given up on their aspirations for a free, democratic, and secular Iran.
.@LordIndarjit: "We've seen again and again that the #Iranian people are standing up to this regime and demanding its overthrow."https://t.co/m7rfnRQ7Oy
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 12, 2023
To date, conservative estimates are that more than 120,000 people have been executed by the regime. And we can never forget the summer of 1988 when over 30,000 political prisoners were sent to the gallows and perished in mass graves and in unmarked locations across Iran. The massacre has been internationally recognized as a crime against humanity.
I join with my fellow Sikhs and many members of the Lords and Commons in our solidarity with the brave people of Iran, a country with a rich heritage and culture, which is very pronounced and close to that of Sikhs. I join with them in their aspirations for a free and democratic, secular Iran.
An important step in this direction is to proscribe, as we’ve heard, and it’s become an urgent necessity to proscribe, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, both for its involvement in domestic repression, but also for repression abroad, as many people in this room will know.
We should also urge, as has been mentioned, the sending of a fact-finding mission to visit political prisoners, including those currently on hunger strike in Ghezal Hazar prison, and place appropriate sanctions on the individuals and organizations associated with the Iranian regime.
The Iranian people have an organized, capable, and popular resistance movement, led by Madame Maryam Rajavi, who gave the brilliant opening address to us. Her Ten-Point Plan is something not only for Iran as an ideal for Iran, it is an ideal for many, many countries around the world, where human rights are being abused.
And we should work with her and the Iranian people to work tirelessly for the exposure of Iran’s atrocities, and we should constantly give them full support.
Thank you.
