NCRI – The Iranian regime has been violating the rights, dignity and equality of women for more than 30 years, a former White House official has told an International Women’s Day conference in Paris.
And the only hope of creating true freedom, pluralism and democracy in the ‘vicious regime’ is the Iranian resistance and its leader Maryam Rajavi, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity Linda Chavez said on March 9.
She added: “The situation today that we are here to address has to do with one of the most fundamental rights, the right of women to dignity and to equality. And as I do not need to tell you, for more than 30 years, those rights have been violated by the regime in Iran.
“And yet despite this suffering the women of Iran have remained strong and have remained a force for good, for freedom and for the desire to be able to rule over their own lives within Iran.
“But equality for the women of Iran and for the people of Iran will not come incrementally, it will not be won simply by pressure from the west, it will not be won simply because of negotiations with a regime. It will only be won by regime change in Tehran.”
And the movement that represented the possibility for that change was the Iranian Resistance, Ms Chavez said.
She added: “Maryam Rajavi has proved with a record of resistance and a record of speaking out against what is happening in her country.
“She has been able to articulate a new way for Iran, a way based on equality, that is based on the right of all persons to be able to elect their own leaders and to articulate the vision that true pluralism, true freedom, can not exist when there is not a separation between church and state.
“And she has done this, despite the fact that she endangers herself, that she has put herself out there as a target of this vicious regime. She does this because she is a patriot, because she is a woman and because she is a devout Muslim. She is an inspiration to all women. She is an inspiration indeed to all freedom-loving people throughout the world.”
Ms Chavez said her ‘brothers and sisters’ suffering in Camp Liberty were also a source of inspiration to freedom-loving Iranians around the world.
She added: “They are an inspiration to intimidate the regime that not only threatens them, but that threatens all of us. And because they are such a threat, the Iranian government, the regime in Tehran, has in fact ordered its proxies in Iraq to attack Camp Liberty.
“The government of the United States promised that if those living in Camp Ashraf would only move to Camp Liberty they would be protected, they would be resettled and they would have their freedom.
“Those promises have not only been broken, they have been broken with blood on the hands of those who made those promises.”
The United Nations and the US must now step in and remove the UN’s representative in Iraq Martin Kobler, Ms Chavez demanded.
She told delegates: “Remove him, and remove from Camp Liberty and return to Camp Ashraf the people who have suffered so long and who have paid with their blood for their own freedom.
“We cannot let stand by while more than 3000 people are being kept as if they are members of a concentration camp in Iraq, to be attacked, to be injured and to be murdered.
“We cannot stand by and we must all pressure the American government, who made its promises to protect these people, and unless that happens our job will not be done here.”
