FREEDOM FOR IRAN 🕊
Since the 1979 Revolution, Iranians have lacked basic freedoms and human rights unheard of in any other country in the world. Everything from speech, women's rights, the media, music, film and social activities are curtailed and controlled by the Republic. According to Human Rights House Foundation: 'Iran remains to be one of the worst places with regard to women’s rights, freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights set in the Universal Human Rights Declaration.' This 41-year oppression has led to numerous bloody protests including the November 2019 uprising that saw 1,500 slain on the streets in two weeks, the 2017–2018 demonstrations aimed at the dire economy and the theocratic regime, and the 2009 Green Movement with millions protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fraudulent re-election.
That is not to say life in the Pahlavi was rosy. The Shah was corrupt, according to a mid-1970s CIA report, and his SAVAK put opponents and human rights defenders in prison. Some also saw Shahbanu Farah as the Iranian Marie Antoinette: 'Let Them Eat Cake!' According to the British Committee for Iran Freedom: 'In the Iranian people's revolution against the monarchy on the 11th February 1979, the main demands of the people were freedom and democracy. They had risen up against censorship and oppression, arrests and torture of political and human rights activists and corruption within the ruling Shah's family.' Leftist Iranian students affiliated with the MEK and the Freedom Movement of Iran shot themselves by fighting to oust sovereignty, not knowing that a swarm of Shia hardliners had made Iran their home. On top of this were Democratic President Jimmy Earl Carter Jr., which declassified U.S. government documents reveal helped Khomeini return to Iran by preventing the Imperial Iranian Army from launching a military coup, as reported by BBC Persian and covered by The Guardian. Europe also gave a powerful helping hand (literally off a chartered Air France plane). In 1978, the Ayatollah famously said: 'The religious dignitaries do not want to rule.' He also promised a democratic political system, as noted by Democracy Digest. In a 2008 interview with VOA Farsi, Sayyid Abolhassan Banisadr, the first President of Iran after 1979, claims: 'He made promises in Paris and did the exact opposite after his arrival to Iran' and 'The violence that we see today (in Muslim countries) comes from him. He not only promoted violence but he was the first to sanctify it in Islam.'
Fast forward 41 years, and the people of Iran are still feeling the effects of that fateful year. Attempts were made to improve human rights in the late '90s with the rise of the reformist movement in Iran, most notably with the election of President Sayyid Mohammad Khatami on 3 August 1997. The predominately moderate parliament drafted several bills allowing for increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and the banning of torture, however, these were blocked or watered down by the hardline Guardian Council who control the institutions in the country. Khatami himself said in a 47-page "letter for the future", that his government had stood for noble principles but had made mistakes and faced obstruction by hardline elements in the clerical establishment. The truth is that life in modern Iran is incredibly restricted, 70% of Iranians live under the poverty line, the clerics loot the country's wealth and send money to terrorists, the Revolutionary Guards continue to commit gross violations of human rights, and the Basij patrols the streets, a militia set up in 1979 following Khomeini's call for '20m riflemen or a military with 20m soldiers.' The force is a branch of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain designated terrorist organization IRGC or 'Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution.' According to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change: 'Over these 40 years, it has been linked to terrorist attacks, hostage-takings, maritime piracy, political assassinations, human rights violations and the crushing of domestic dissent across Iran, most recently with the bloodshed on the Iranian streets in November 2019, leaving 1,500 people dead in less than two weeks.'
One area where the lack of freedom is pronounced is in expression. Speaking out against the government through the media or in the form of protests are forbidden and carry a heavy prison sentence, lashings, or even worse execution. The U.S. Department of State have a webpage entitled: 'The Islamic Republic of Iran: A Dangerous Regime,' in one section saying: 'Today the Iranian regime under the Islamic Republic’s rule routinely punishes activists for peaceful activities, preventing the free exercise of expression.' Demonstrations are crushed by the brutal Basij like in the November '19 uprising, which started out of a significant hike in fuel price and quickly turned into dissatisfaction at the clerical establishment. "We don't want an Islamic Republic" and "We don't want the rule of the mullahs" are amongst the chants, as written by Struan Stevenson, Co-ordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change and President of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup, in The Scotsman. Khamenei's order of ‘shoot-to-kill’ as exposed by Reuters led to 1,500 deaths, 4,000 injuries and the arrest of 12,000 people. Many that are detained are subject to torture by the Sepâh as a method of repression or to extract false confessions. On 2 September 2020, Amnesty International shared a report on Instagram into widespread torture methods used against the November 2019 protestors, including 'beatings, floggings, electric shocks, waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical substances, and the deprivation of medical care.' A famous example of the arrest, torture and escape of a demonstrator in Iran is that of Ahmad Batebi, a 21-year-old University of Tehran pupil who took part in the 1999 Iranian student protests. The Shiraz native notably appeared on the cover of The Economist holding up a bloodstained t-shirt alongside the headline: 'Iran's Second Revolution?' The publishing led to him being 'sentenced to death' for 'creating street unrest' and 'propaganda against the Islamic Republic System,' which was was reduced to 15 years in jail after domestic and international outcry. While temporarily released from prison to receive medical treatment, Batebi was assisted by the KDPI to flee Iran for Iraq. On 24 June 2008, he finally entered the U.S., where he was granted asylum status by the American administration. Today, he is a vocal voice against the government in Iran, writing in a pinned tweet on 16 May 2019: 'To Iranian demonic regime: Your mistake was that you tortured and robbed me of my youth and wellbeing. Your biggest mistake however, was that you didn’t kill me. Because I don’t forgive, nor do I forget. '
Iran is the number one per capita executioner in the world, as written by The Economist, and despite signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 5 September 1991, the country is the largest executioner of juvenile offenders, according to human rights groups. A significant number of killings took place in the decade after the revolution starting with a purge of the Shah's military and cabinet to prevent any coup d'état, followed by the 1988 massacre of 30,000 young political prisoners, many of them Mujahedin-e-Khalq members and supporters, which according to Struan Stevenson: 'Must rank as one of the worst crimes against humanity of the late 20th century.' No perpetrators have ever been tried in the international court and no investigations have ever been conducted despite the UN having, as Struan states: 'Irrefutable evidence of this atrocity.' Some of the suspects still hold high-ranking positions in the government today including the recently appointed Chief Justice of Iran Ebrahim Raisi, and President Hassan Rouhani’s Minister of Justice Alireza Avaei. On 19 December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a Canadian-sponsored resolution expressing 'serious concern' about Iran's high rate of executions without legal safeguards, ongoing use of torture, widespread arbitrary detentions, sharp limits on freedom of assembly, expression, and religious belief, and continuing discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi responded to criticism in 2012 by stating that 'Iran has the most successful record in terms of human rights among Muslim countries,' and Secretary-General of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council of Human Rights Ali Bagheri-Kani told state-run IRNA in 2020 that Iran should present its 'human rights achievements that are based on religious and traditional methods to the world,' with Stevenson saying in The Scotsman: 'Comedy and farce are not dead in the Islamic Republic.'
Recent examples of death sentences applied 'to create fear within the society and prevent future protests,' as #MyStealthyFreedom founder Masih Alinejad calls it to LBC's Maajid Nawaz, include those of Amirhossein Moradi, 25, Mohammad Rajabi, 25, and Saeed Tamjid, 27, who took part in the November '19 demonstrations. The youngsters fled to Turkey but were handed back by the Turkish authorities despite knowing the threat to their lives if they were returned to Iran. On 22 February 2020, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced the men to death under the claim of 'being an accomplice to destruction of public property in order to defy the Islamic Republic.' According to UN human rights experts and Amnesty International, the three confessed under torture and were subject to 'unfair trials.' On 14 July 2020, the executions were upheld leading to #StopExecutionsInIran trending on Twitter with more than 8 million mentions worldwide. Five days later, one of the accused lawyer's told AFP: 'We conveyed a request (for a retrial) to the supreme court and they have accepted it. We hope the verdict will be overturned.' One protestor who wasn't so lucky was Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestler from Shiraz, who's 'only crime was joining Iran protests,' as Masih puts it to LBC. The #United4Navid founder tells Maajid: 'They accused him of killing a security guy in Iran, which they do that every time when they want to create fear within the society.' Afkari's case gained global attention with the MailOnline and BBC covering the story, as well as U.S. President Donald J. Trump tweeting on 3 September 2020: 'Hearing that Iran is looking to execute a great and popular wrestling star, 27-year-old Navid Afkari, whose sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets. They were protesting the 'country’s worsening economic situation and inflation.' To the leaders of Iran, I would greatly appreciate if you would spare this young man’s life, and not execute him. Thank you!' U.S. State Dept. Spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, also spoke out: 'We join the world in outrage at the Iranian regime's death sentence for Navid Afkari, who was tortured into giving a false confession after participating in peaceful protests in 2018. The regime also tortured his two brothers and sentenced them to decades in prison. Let them go!' Despite the outcry, on 12 September 2020, the Sepâh secretly executed Navid in Shiraz’s Adel Abad Prison. In one of the athlete's last audio recordings, as reported by Iran News Wire, the Greco-Roman wrestler said: 'I’m happy today because I’ve now learned the true aspirations of humanity from you, extraordinary people. Aspirations that are much greater and more valuable than international wrestling championships,' and in another shared with the Centre for Human Rights in Iran: 'There is not one shred of evidence in this damned case that shows I’m guilty. But they don’t want to listen to us. I realized they are looking for a neck for their rope.'
Freedom and human rights are also a major issue in regards to women in Iran. Before 1979, females were free to wear what they liked, ride a bike, drive a car, sing, study every subject and mix with boys and men in schools and universities. Now Sharia law, as interpreted in the Islamic Republic, calls for inequality of rights between genders, and in 2003, Iran elected not to become a member of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. One form of prejudice that has garnered recent media attention is the nation's ban on females entering sports stadiums, 'the only country in the world,' as noted by Amnesty. On 2 September 2019, 29-year-old Sahar Khodayari set herself on fire outside a court in Tehran that sentenced her to six months in prison for trying to sneak into Azadi Stadium dressed as a man to watch her favourite team's football match. Dubbed the 'Blue Girl' because of the colours of Esteghlal F.C., she received burns to 90% of her body and died on 9 September 2019. Following the tragedy and a statement from FIFA that 'women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran,' on 10 October 2019, 3,500 females were permitted to enter Azadi to watch Iran's 2022 World Cup qualifier against Cambodia, as reported by The Guardian. According to Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director, Philip Luther: 'While the Iranian authorities have allowed small numbers of women to enter football stadiums on a handful of occasions, these have amounted to nothing more than publicity stunts, rather than meaningful steps to lifting the ban on women altogether.' One area where the lack of freedom is pronounced is in the country's compulsory hijab law, which forces females to cover their hair and wear modest clothing from the age of 7, and came into force by Ayatollah Khomeini on 7 March 1979. More than 100,000 women and men took to the streets of Tehran the day after to protest against the rule, and opposition to it has never gone away. Publications like the MailOnline and Business Insider, as well as the BBC, have articles showing life pre-revolution in Iran, with the most obvious difference being in how females dressed. Photographs show women wearing Western-style outfits, including miniskirts and short-sleeved tops, and posing in swimsuits by the Caspian Sea.
Since the revolution, this new dress code has been enforced by the notoriously strict female-led morality police, or gasht-e ershâd, that patrols the streets of Iran much like the Basij. Numerous videos have emerged over the years of the force beating and hurling abuse at Iranian women, like this one from April 2018 that shows the group attacking a female whose headscarf is deemed 'inadequate.' In April 2007, the Iranian police launched a crackdown against women accused of not covering up enough, arresting nearly 300, some for wearing too tight an overcoat or letting too much hair peek out from under their veil, as reported by NBC News. According to Elham Mohammadi, a 23-year-old female student, to the network: 'What they do is really insulting. You simply can't tell people what to wear.' This lack of freedom has led to a series of brave protests, most notably, the 2017–2019 Girls of Enghelab Street inspired by 31-year-old Vida Mohaved, who on 27 December 2017, stood on an electric utility box, took off her white hijab, and started waving it on a stick in the wind. The photo was featured in a number of international newspapers such as the The Telegraph, The Times, and Observer, and went viral on social media alongside the hashtag #WhereIsShe after reports that she had gone missing. The mother of a 19-month-old baby had been arrested and sentenced to one year in Qarchak prison. Vida became a symbol for Iranian women's fight for freedom of choice, and according to Niloofar (not her real name), to the BBC: 'These women are not waiting for hijab laws to be removed, they are removing them themselves.'
A prominent Iranian woman fighting forced veiling in Iran is New York-based VOA Farsi presenter and founder of #MyStealthyFreedom, Masih Alinejad, an online movement that the 44-year-old started on Facebook on 5 May 2014 for women in Iran to post pictures of themselves without the scarf. Many have submitted their photos unveiled, which are typically taken in secret to avoid being caught by the authorities, and to date the site has surpassed 1 million likes. The activist said of the page to Global Journalist’s Anna Kowalska in October 2014: 'Once I posted pictures of [myself] in London, free, without a scarf. I received messages from Iranian women saying: "Don’t publish these pictures because we envy you." Soon after I published another picture of myself driving in my hometown in Iran, again without a scarf. And I said to Iranian women: "I bet you can do the same." Many of them started to send me their photos without hijab, so I created a page called "My Stealthy Freedom." …If I were in Iran this website wouldn’t exist. From far away those voiceless women can express themselves for the first time [in] more than 30 years.' On 24 May 2017, The Wind In My Hair author launched the #WhiteWednesdays campaign, which many believe inspired Vida Mohaved and the Girls of Enghelab Street, and invites women in Iran to take a photo or video of themselves on Wednesdays wearing a white headscarf or a piece of white clothing and posting it alongside the hashtag. In one video shared on Twitter and by the BBC in an article entitled: 'Why Iranian women are wearing white on Wednesdays,' one female says: 'I want to talk to you of my imprisonment, of the fact that I can't enjoy the power of choice in my very own country [...] They imposed hijab on me since I was seven, while I never felt committed to it and won't be.' On 4 February 2019, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Alinejad and thanked her for her bravery and continued dedication to speaking out on these issues and defending human rights in Iran.
57-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh is an award-winning human rights lawyer who has represented numerous women in Iran prosecuted for taking off their headscarves. Of Narges Hosseini, who was arrested within ten minutes of removing her veil in 2018, Nasrin wrote on Facebook, as reported by The Independent: 'Her message is clear, girls and women are fed up with forced [hijab]. Let women decide themselves about their own body.' On 9 January 2011, Iranian authorities sentenced Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison and a 20-year ban on working as an attorney and leaving the country for charges including 'acting against national security' and 'membership of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders.' On 18 September 2013, the Tehran native was released without explanation along with ten other political prisoners days before an address by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations. On 13 June 2018, the mother of two was arrested again and on 11 March 2019 sentenced to 38 years in jail and 148 lashes, according to her husband on Facebook, as covered by The Guardian, for 'spying, spreading propaganda and insulting Iran’s supreme leader.' On 11 March 2019, Javaid Rehman, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, raised Sotoudeh's case at the UN Human Rights Council, saying: 'Worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution, and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labour rights activists signal an increasingly severe State response,' and on 12 March 2019, U.S State Dept. Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said at a press briefing: 'We condemn Nasrin's sentence in the strongest possible terms and call on all of our partners and allies to speak out and demand the release of this courageous human rights defender.'
When discussing the recent execution of Navid Afkari to LBC's Maajid Nawaz, Masih mentions that there is 'no free media to cover this fake trial in Iran.' The 1985 press law prohibits 'discourse harmful to the principles of Islam' or 'public interest,' as referred to in Article 24 of the Constitution, which according to Human Rights Watch, provides 'officials with ample opportunity to censor, restrict, and find offence.' Hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and blogs have been shut down for criticising the government, most recently, Jahan-e Sanat for quoting an expert as saying Iran's toll from coronavirus could be 20 times higher than official figures, as reported by Reuters. Editors and bloggers are also languishing in jails with Reporters Without Borders dubbing the country: 'Middle East's biggest prison for journalists.' On 24 April 2020, two writers were arrested in Tehran for publishing a cartoon making fun of clerics who recommend traditional Islamic medicine to treat COVID-19. Internet freedom is also lacking with Iran ranking worst in Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2013: Global Scores. Many major sites are blocked entirely, including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and satellite dishes are banned with the police periodically raiding homes to confiscate them. In an interview with DW News, Masih Alinejad says: 'This generation is not going to keep silent. They found social media as an alternative media to express themselves, to be loud and to break the censorship, that is why the social media itself is a threat for Islamic Republic of Iran, so they try to block it because they see this is the main battleground, and they don't want to lose control.' A recent example of an Iranian journalist arrested and sentenced to death in Iran is that of Ruhollah Zam, founder and editor-in-chief of AmadNews, a popular news channel on messaging app Telegram, which at its peak had 1.4 million subscribers, more than BBC's Persian service. Through it the 47-year-old routinely shared damaging information on the regime's top turbans, particularly their sexual and financial corruptions, and was accused of using it to stir up the 2017–2018 protests. Son of an influential cleric, Zam had been living in exile in France since 2011 but was tricked into taking a trip to Iraq on 11 October 2019 by Shirin Najafi Zadeh, an administrator at AmadNews, on the promise of receiving a large sum of money from Ali al-Sistani to finance a new TV channel, as written by The Jerusalem Post in an article called: 'Who betrayed Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam?' The activist was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Guards and transported blindfolded by car to Iran where he was forced to do a false confession on state-run broadcaster IRIB. On 8 December 2020, the father of two's death sentence was upheld following an appeal and he was convicted of spying, inciting violence, and 'corruption on earth' by notorious 'hanging judge' Abolqasem Salavati and executed four days later 😔
PRESSTV is the regime's English-language news and documentary network, with Google banning access to its Gmail and YouTube in April 2019, and to its U.K. platform in January 2020. Founded on 8 July 2007 by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the channel routinely spews hatred towards Israel, most notably, through anti-semitic conspiracy theories like the Holocaust denial, as reported by Oliver Kamm for The Jewish Chronicle, and a 2015 report by the Anti-Defamation League that said Israel was involved in 9/11 and the Iraq War. The station has aired the coerced confessions of multiple prisoners, most famously, Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested while filming the 2009 election protests and tortured into giving a 10-second Press TV interview that the Western media were guilty of fomenting the demonstrations. The Newsweek reporter complained to Ofcom, and on 23 May 2011, the regulatory authority fined the broadcaster £100,000, revoking their UK licence on 20 January 2012. Past hosts include former Labour Party Leader Jeremy Bernard Corbyn, who appeared on the network four times between 2009 and 2012, famously pocketing £20,000, according to his register of interests, as reported by Business Insider. Ex-MP George Galloway is another left-wing politician who has made Press TV their home, presenting weekly shows 'The Comment' and 'The Real Deal' from 2008 to 2016, announcing his departure with a tweet on 1 December 2016, with one Twitter user saying: '8 years of being paid by a brutal dictatorship to spread the same vile views that they hold.' Speaking to LSE students on 7 March 2011, the Leader of the Workers Party of Britain, said: 'Because I don’t believe that the government of Iran is a dictatorship I have no problem about working for Press TV.' Cherie Blair's half-sister Lauren Booth has also had a long association with the state-owned medium, starting with 'Between The Headlines' in 2008, and 'Remember Palestine' and 'Diaspora' between 2010 and 2012. According to Maziar Bahari to Business Insider: 'People who present programmes for Press TV and get paid for it should be really ashamed of themselves — especially if they call themselves liberals and people who are interested in human rights.' A recent example of how the Iranian government uses media to pump out propaganda is through the January 2020 coverage of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. Front pages of state-run newspapers showed a sea of people gathered in the streets for the general's funeral, painting a picture of him as a hero and revered figure in Iran. The truth is these are 'staged,' as noted by Bob Blackman in Euronews, with the majority being the Pasdaran and poor people from the outskirts and Iraq who are given money, food, and transport to attend. The authorities also force individuals to take part, threatening to close up their businesses if they do not. Masoud Dalvand, an exiled Iranian human rights activist, agrees to the Washington Examiner: 'The regime is using all the military garrisons and all the Basij militia members, as well as their families in the cities, and sending them to the streets. In addition, it closes schools and even many offices and universities, forcing students to take to the streets and punish them if they refuse.'
According to Human Rights Watch, 'authorities have long censored art, music, and other forms of cultural expression, as well as prosecuted hundreds of people for such acts.' An article in The Lowell Sun tells the story of 36-year-old Ashkan Hamedi, who went from underground rock shows in Iran that 'can land you in jail,' to a tour of France, and a town in the U.S — Tyngsboro, Mass. On leaving his native country, the guitar player says: 'We moved here to the United States of America just to be able to play rock and roll. I love this country. I love the United States of America because it allows me to be myself. It allows me freedom of speech and it allows me to play the kind of music that I like.' Jesse Hughes, frontman for Eagles of Death Metal, who's band were performing the night Le Bataclan was stormed by ISIS thugs, shooting dead 90 innocent fans in cold blood, recently spoke on IGTV with a friend in Iran, who describes the situation as 'all wrong.' The I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News) singer, says: 'I love your people for real . . . It's the fact that you have endured so much direct attempts at destroying you, and still come out with your identity (it's Motörhead baby, that's what it is, it's rock 'n' roll). You perfectly sum up my belief in rock 'n' roll as an attitude.' Film also lacks freedom in Iran. Persepolis, a 2007 animation based on Marjane Satrapi's novel of the same name, tells the story of the author from a child to rebellious, punk-loving Iranian teenager pre and post-revolutionary Iran. The film shows repression under the Shah, but also the social crackdown and executions that followed. Persepolis co-won the 2007 Cannes Jury Prize, and was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It has also been described as 'one of this century’s greatest animated films' by Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent. The movie was called 'anti-Iranian' and accused of 'Islamophobia' by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with the 📖 and motion picture being banned in the country. One Iranian filmmaker who's struggle has reached Hollywood, is that of Jafar Panahi, a Cannes Caméra d'Or prize winner for his 1995 debut The White Balloon, and the festival's Best Screenplay for 2018's 3 Faces. On 20 December 2010, the director was sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on making movies, writing screenplays, giving interviews with Iranian or foreign media, or leaving the country for 'colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.' On 15 October 2011, Panahi was placed under house arrest, allowing him to move freely within Iran. 'The film-making ban on Panahi has done little to halt his output, however,' as reported by Gwilym Mumford of The Guardian. 2011's This Is Not A Film was smuggled to Cannes on a USB flash drive hidden inside a cake, with A. O. Scott of The New York Times calling it 'an essay on the struggle between political tyranny and the creative imagination,' and for 2015's Taxi, the screenwriter carried out a covert shoot in a cab, rigging it with hidden cameras and pretending to be its driver. The docufiction won the Golden Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize. Writing on Instagram in 2018, the father-of-two said: 'My biggest wish as a filmmaker is that my films will be displayed in Iran. Even if it is in a cinema, even if it is in the most remote place.'
Iran Freedom have, according to their website: 'Contributed to exposing Iran terrorism and fundamentalism as well as its clandestine nuclear program and interfering in the region. Iran freedom echoes Iranian people voices for freedom and supports Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the president-elect of the national council of resistance of Iran and her ten-point plan for a free and democratic Iran.' In a meeting at the Council of Europe in April 2006, 67-year-old Rajavi elaborated on the movement's vision, as noted by NCRI, which includes: 'separation of Religion and State,' 'complete gender equality in political, economic and social arenas,' 'the right to freely choose their clothing,' 'they are free in marriage, divorce, education and employment,' 'a modern judicial system . . . the mullahs' Sharia law will be abolished,' 'commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,' and 'a non-nuclear Iran.' The organisation have support from U.S. politicians including former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, who said at the Free Iran Global Summit on 17 July 2020: 'The NCRI strives relentlessly to ensure that hope for democracy and an end to injustice and tyranny remains alive in Iran . . . The mere fact that she is a woman leading a group like this is revolutionary . . . When this terrible regime falls, and it will fall, and she's the interim leader, to have a woman as the head of state, I believe it will completely transform a great deal of the Middle East, and a great deal of the world.' Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, a long-time adversary of the regime, has also endorsed change in Tehran with the NCRI, saying at a Free Iran event on 1 July 2017: 'There is a viable opposition to the rule of the ayatollahs, and that opposition is centred in this room today.' On 17 June 2020, a majority of members of the House of Representatives backed a bipartisan resolution supporting Maryam Rajavi's call for a secular, democratic Iran, as reported by Fox News. The National Council of Resistance of Iran are a subsidiary of the MEK, an exiled Iranian opposition group that played a key role in the overthrow of the Shah. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq have been described by critics as 'a cult,' and were designated a terrorist organisation in the EU until 26 January 2009, the U.S. until 28 September 2012, Canada until 20 December 2012, and Japan until 2013. The group claims to have disassociated itself from its former revolutionary ideology in favor of liberal democratic values, but some opponents, like Hamid Vahed of the Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists, disagree, writing: 'Despite having a woman leader, Maryam Rajavi, and despite its claim to support women’s rights and labor rights, the MEK is a militarist and deeply hierarchical organization that has nothing to offer the Iranian masses.'
Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump took a tougher stance with Iran dubbed the 'maximum pressure' campaign, famously pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal that did nothing to curb Tehran's enrichment programme, instead lifted economic sanctions allowing the regime to sell its vast supply of oil and gas, and using the money to fund terrorism across the Middle East. On top of this, the $1.8 billion that were handed over to the Mullahs by the Obama administration went towards malign activities. According to research by the BCFIF: 'The regime has spent billions of dollars of oil revenues to support terrorist and warmongering projects in various countries,' and 'Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted that their weapons, money and all their expenses, including clothing and food, are provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran.' Some blame sanctions for Iran's poverty and inflation. The dire economy has little to do with international sanctions but 'Plundering by Corrupt Mullahs and IRGC Terrorists,' as noted by Iran Freedom. Hossein Raghfar, an economist at Tehran’s Alzahra University, has suggested that as little as 15% of Iran’s economic problems can be attributed to sanctions. A recent analysis of pharmaceutical trade between Europe and Iran shows little change between 2011 and 2019 despite periods of imposition, suspension, and return of sanction, and on 6 April 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: 'In July 2019, 1 billion Euros intended for medical supplies “disappeared” and another $170 million dollars allocated for medical goods were instead spent on tobacco.” On 24 September 2020, the U.S. administration 'blacklisted several Iranian officials and entities over alleged gross violations of human rights, including slapping sanctions on a judge it said was involved in the case of an Iranian wrestler sentenced to death,' as reported by Reuters. In an article by Roger Cohen of The New York Times, entitled: 'Trump Is Right, This Time, About Iran,' the journalist writes: 'Trump has been right to get behind the brave Iranian protesters calling for political and economic change,' and that in 2009: 'The silence of the Obama White House was deafening: too little, too late.' In a tweet on 7 November 2020, Pompeo wrote: 'America is and shall remain the greatest nation in all of human history. We welcome the day when the Iranian people get their wish - and you know what that is. That is all,' and on 29 August 2020, State Dept. Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, tweeted: 'Khamenei's thugs killed 1,500 Iranians on the streets of Iran last November. At least 23 were children. They deserved freedom and a future, not the Basij's bullets.'
The EU 'condemn' Iran's human rights abuses and have sanctioned a number of Iranian officials. France, Germany, Italy, and Austria also pulled out of the Europe-Iran Business Forum that was due to take place on 14 December 2020 following the execution of French-based dissident Ruhollah Zam, with the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs tweeting '#nobusinessasusual' on 13 December 2020, but have done little in the way of tougher action as systematic suppression still continues in Iran. One effective measure would be to stop doing business with the Islamic Republic, in other words, stop purchasing the country's crude oil and gas. 'Oil in many ways encapsulates Iran’s tragedy: a resource that has tied Iran’s fortunes to Western powers . . . Oil is both an example of Iran’s good fortune and rich potential, and a weakness others have used against it. It’s the Iranian story,' writes David Patrikarakos, a contributing writer at POLITICO. Iran has the world's third highest oil reserves after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, if Canadian reserves of unconventional oil are excluded, and the second most gas after Russia, however, BP credits Russia with only 32900 km³, which would place it in second place, slightly behind Iran. Prior to 2012, Iran exported more than 3 million barrels of crude oil a day, the second-largest exporter among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, as reported by The New York Times. Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela, human rights activist and granddaughter of the late South African President Nelson Mandela, attended a virtual conference hosted by the NCRI on 10 November 2020, saying, as noted by Iran Freedom: 'The people of Iran have turned to the international community to boycott the regime, and to not engage in actions that legitimize commercial and political relations with the oppressive regime.' In an In-Depth Analysis by the European Parliament, entitled: 'State of play of EU-Iran relations and the future of the JCPOA,' the institution says, in one section: 'The EU should be able to pursue a foreign policy according to its own interests and follow this up with trade and other instruments aimed to reinforce political ambitions and goals.'💩 Speaking to LBC's Maajid Nawaz on 30 August 2020, Masih Alinejad called out western countries for standing by on the human rights abuses seen in Iran to protect economic interests, and on 8 December 2020, Josep Borrell Fontelles, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, tweeted in support of #HumanRightsDay, nominating German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass to take part in the #StandUp4HumanRights challenge, which was met by comments from Iranians, including this one: 'How much bloodshed & brutality must occur until the EU stops the appeasement of this criminal regime? How do you all engage & shake hands with those who murder Iranians & pillage #Iran?'
Saghar Erica Kasraie, an Iran-born American Middle East expert, activist, and voice for religious minorities, recently uploaded an IGTV following the abduction and execution of her friend Ruhollah Zam. In it she talks frankly about the 'evil in the Middle East that has been left unchecked for 41 years . . . It's holding the Iranian people hostage, the beautiful Iranian people who just want to be free, they want to be friends with Israel, they want to be friends with America, they want to be friends with the free world, but the regime continues to commit gross violations of human rights, and the world stays quiet, there's no accountability. In my opinion, it's systemic genocide.' The 43-year-old goes on to say: 'When is enough, enough? . . . At what point do world leaders decide that their moral compass should lead them? Doing business with a terrorist regime that wants to obtain a nuclear weapon?' Saghar finishes off by saying: 'One day the regime will be gone and the Iranian people will remember who stood with them . . . and to those who are hoping to empower them by returning to a nuclear agreement, I say, the blood of Navid Afkari and all those that have died at the hands of this criminal regime will be on your conscience.'
Nelson Mandela once said: 'To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.' The philanthropist's granddaughter recently spoke at the NCRI's online conference, saying: 'Now is the time to act against the many crimes against humanity that have become normalized in Iran. The people of Iran demand regime change and reject all forms of dictatorship. The monarchist and the theocratic regime, they demand and deserve a republic based on democratic elections, gender equality, separation of religion and state, freedom of thought and expression, as well as an end to discrimination against religious beliefs.' The activist goes on to say: 'The horrifying crisis that the people of Iran have had to endure reminds me of my grandparents’ struggle during the apartheid era in South Africa . . . As a global village, we are each responsible to stand up and stand together with the people of Iran in their fight against oppression, dictatorship, injustices and inequalities.' Speaking to VOA Farsi in January 2020, Sadegh Amiri said: 'Iranian people wish to live in freedom,' and Ahmad Batebi added: 'If you listen to people on the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, it is clear that people are fed up with this regime.' In an interview with Brut America following the November '19 'massacre,' Persian actress Golshifteh Farahani talks about 'freedom,' and how 'the characteristic of fire is to burn, the characteristic of water is to flow, the characteristic of a human being is to be free,' and when asked: 'You have hope for your country?' The exiled film star replies: 'I don't have hope for water to flow. I don't have hope for fire to burn. Fire will burn. Water will flow and Iran will be free.'