Shbahang , (شباهنگ): October 2018

Wednesday 31 October 2018

The prospects of student uprisings in Iran

As protests continue to rage across Iran, the regime is eyeing students with growing fear and skepticism.

In recent days, reports have surfaced of student movements supporting the strikes of teachers and truck drivers. Student movements and protests in Iran have historically been closely tied to nationwide uprisings and social and worker-class protests.

The unity between students and workers and other hardworking classes of the Iranian society are not new, and neither are they unique to Iran. All across the world, student protests have had a pivotal role in the society. Some examples include the 1968 protests in France and the student protests in China at the end of the 20^th century.

In Iran, students have been the momentum of struggles for freedom, both under the Shah and Khomeini dictatorships. And despite having been suppressed violently, they have never backed down from their struggle.

For instance, during the reign of the Shah dictatorship, security forces murdered three students after the coup against Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. The people of Iran still commemorate that event today as the Day of Student. In 1980, the Khomeini regime shut down all universities in a wave of suppression that aimed to curb the growing influence of PMOI/MEK. The event led to the souring of relations between the regime and students across the country.

Throughout the rule of both the Shah and the Khomeini regime, student associations and universities have been a bastion for freedom fighters. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran was founded by three students.

Student protests in Iran during the mullahs’ rule

Soon after Khomeini seized power in Iran following the 1979 revolution, he ordered the shutdown of universities in what he called the “Cultural Revolution.” During that time, several students were murdered and injured, and several university professors were fired.

The regime later tried to prevent dissidents from finding their way into universities by creating forged accounts and bringing up excuses to disqualify them. The main fear of the regime was opposition groups such as MEK and the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas.

37 years after the so-called cultural revolution, the regime continues to suppress university students.

In recent years, the question has remained that why does the regime continue to create an environment of suppression and terror in universities. Why are student activists facing heavy punishments from regime courts and security forces? Why is the regime so terrified of students?

The regime eyes every single student as a threat to its rule. The students of Iran do not tolerate the outdated ideology of the Iranian mullahs' regime, a fact that is not lost on its officials. Students are also very explicit in their opposition to the censorship and oppression of the ruling regime.

There’s potential that the rage of Iranian students might erupt at any time and expand to the entire country, facing the regime with a serious challenge at a time it is dealing with an escalating wave of protests everywhere in Iran.

Also, the history of the Shah and the Khomeini regime has shown that the voice of students can’t be stifled, and any effort by both regimes to silence protests in universities has failed.

The prospects of the student movement

As protests continue to rage across Iran, the regime is eyeing students with growing fear and skepticism. And that is why it is ramping up its suppressive measures against students and universities. However, as we’ve seen in the past months, the will of Iranian students, teachers, workers, merchants and every other community in Iran can’t be suppressed. And the Iranian people will continue to fight for their rights no matter how hard the regime tries to suppress them.

GIULIANI: WE MUST SUPPORT MEK

INU- Last month, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani addressed the American Iranian Diaspora, which stands against the mullahs’ regime for the ninth time.

Giuliani is a member of a large bipartisan group of former governors, mayors, military leaders, senior administration officials and members of Congress, who agree that Iran is entitled to “freedom and democracy” and should be led by those already fighting for those values, with whom the US can ally themselves.

This is the wish of the Iranian people, who have been calling for regime change in nationwide protests since December 2017. The rest of the world should join Giuliani and his group in supporting The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the largest and most organised Iranian opposition group, as the regime change that the Iranian people clamour for will take requires organization, leadership, a platform, endurance, competence, and sacrifice.

But why should the MEK take up this mantle? Well simply, because the Regime already fears that the MEK will be the cause of their demise. Time and time again, the Iranian Regime had made it clear that they are scared of Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the broader coalition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), of which the MEK is a member.

That is why the Regime is hell bent on destroying the MEK, through terrorist plots, assassinations, and even mass executions. In fact, Iranian agents were caught as part of three separate terror plots in Belgium, France, Germany, Albania, and the US during 2018 alone. Each time, they wanted to kill thousands or even hundreds of thousands of MEK members, alongside thousands of dignitaries attending MEK conferences.

Giuliani said: “Tehran is willing to risk the political backlash of irrational terrorist activity abroad; the desperation of such acts is clear to the international community… Why would the regime be so methodical in imprisoning, torturing and killing MEK supporters in Iran, as well as targeting its senior officials in Paris and New York if it didn’t feel threatened by it? The regime does not doubt the MEK’s strength in Iran and is on record identifying it as the only opposition movement capable of overthrow.”

The Regime practices and perfects its terrorism on the Iranian people before exporting it around the world, so the international community must stand with the Iranian people and let them know that we support the overthrow of the Regime. After all, Rajavi will lead Iran once the mullahs have fallen and created a democracy out of the ashes of fascism.

Friday 26 October 2018

MARYAM RAJAVI’S MESSAGE TO THE “NO TO EXECUTIONS AND TERRORISM” CONFERENCE HELD AT DISTRICT 5 MUNICIPALITY IN PARIS

On the World Day against the Death Penalty, Maryam Rajavi addressed a message to the participants in a conference at the District 5 Municipality of Paris. Following is the full text of her remarks:

The World Day Against the Death Penalty is to promote a universal value to defend the sanctity of human life. At the same time, it points the finger at the mullahs’ theocratic regime for being the world’s top record holder of executions and for relying on massacres.

Let us salute the 120,000 valiant children of Iran, including the political prisoners massacred in 1988, who were executed by the regime for fighting for freedom.
Their deaths are an everlasting disgrace for the mullahs who have built the pillars of their rule on blood. They are devoid of any popular, humanitarian, or historic legitimacy, and the overthrow of their regime is the urgent objective of the nationalist struggles of the Iranian people and Resistance. A goal which will most certainly be realized beyond a shadow of a doubt.

According to Amnesty International, the Iranian regime carried out 507 death sentences last year. The actual number is much higher because the regime prevents the announcements of a large number of executions. As in the previous years, thousands of people are also lingering in Khamenei’s prisons across the country on the death-row, their lives being enchained as part of the society.

In addition, the mullahs viciously continue to execute prisoners who were juveniles at the time of their alleged crime. The Iranian regime is the record holder in the executions of juvenile offenders, contrary to international laws and conventions.
The velayat-e faqih regime has further resorted to more executions of political prisoners in a bid to counter the uprisings and the nationwide protest movement. Nine political prisoners were executed just this last month. At least 14 protesters arrested during the December-January uprisings have been tortured to death in the mullahs’ dungeons, but the regime projects these murders as “suicides.”

The death penalty is a tool for terrorizing the society and a significant instrument for preserving the regime. Both factions benefit from such endless savagery to prolong the regime’s rule.

The regime’s two main factions are at each other’s throat racing for their own share of power and wealth. However, they are complicit and in accord on the execution of prisoners, on suppression at home and on terrorism abroad. While the infamous Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the terrorist Quds Force are in charge of carrying out the homicidal terrorist plots, the government and the Foreign Ministry are tasked with justifying or denying their role.

The regime’s abortive scheme to strike at the annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance in Paris and its other terrorist plots against the Iranian Resistance in Albania and the U.S., were carried out by Rouhani’s government in full complicity with other murderous institutions of the regime.

The mullahs’ terrorism abroad is an extension of its policy of executions and torture at home. The two policies are part and parcel and it is not possible to advance one without the other.
I urge the world’s governments to stop their political and economic relations with the Iranian regime unless the regime ends torture and executions of prisoners and abandons its involvement in terrorism.

I call on my fellow countrymen and women across the nation to stand up and actively resist against the executions and arrests, and prevent the ruling mullahs from making use of this criminal tool through every possible means.

Thousands upon thousands of Iranians have been sent, one by one, to the gallows or before the firing squads over the past 40 years, under the mullahs’ rule. They are no longer able to feel the warmth of the sun and the energy of life, but as a result of their sacrifice, the dawn is near for the Iranian nation and the mullahs’ religious tyranny is doomed to go.

Thanks to the Iranian people’s Resistance and uprisings, freedom and popular sovereignty are looming in the horizon. The day is not far when the Iranian people will be able to live free from the menace of executions and torture, and Iran will become a garden blessed with freedom and justice.

TAGS: Iranian Resistance, people of Iran, Violation of Human Rights

Thursday 25 October 2018

MARYAM RAJAVI AND THE PEOPLE'S MOJAHEDIN ORGANIZATION OF IRAN (PMOI/MEK) INSIDE IRAN

INU- Members of the Resistance Units linked to the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) are expanding their activities inside Iran.

Resistance units, make up the vast PMOI/MEK network inside the country, and are continuing their recent activities, including displaying their praise for Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in the Iranian capital.

In Tehran, members of a resistance unit distributed leaflets with Maryam Rajavi’s image on them, along with information regarding the ten-point plan for a future Iran.

Also in Tehran, resistance units #511, #913, #302, and #280, were seen carrying out similar measures in the capital. This is extremely dangerous, as the Iranian regime considers support for the PMOI/MEK punishable by death. Still, more people across Tehran and throughout the country, especially the youth, are supporting the PMOI/MEK, and joining their network.

In northwest Iran, members of a resistance unit in Urmia (Orumiyeh), put up posters of Maryam Rajavi reading, “Our objective is to guarantee freedom and democracy.” They also put up a poster showing a large image of Maryam Rajavi and the slogan of “Democracy - Freedom, With Maryam Rajavi”.

In western Iran, members of Resistance Unit 913 put up posters of Maryam Rajavi, in Ilam.

Members of a resistance unit put up a tract praising Maryam Rajavi’s election as the NCRI President-elect in Rasht, northern Iran.

In Hamedan, western Iran, members of a resistance unit put up a poster of Maryam Rajavi.

In the holy city of Mashhad, northeast Iran, members of Resistance Unit 733 put up tracts of praising Maryam Rajavi, and saying “down with Khamenei”, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader.

In West Azarbaijan Province in northwest Iran Members of a resistance unit took put up graffiti saying, “Maryam Rajavi is the symbol of tomorrow’s Iran.”

Members of resistance units in the cities of Birjand, Omidiyeh, Qazvin, Abadan, Bushehr, Rafsanjan, Shushtar and Isfahan also commemorated the day.

Maryam Rajavi posters were put up by members of numerous resistance units in Khuzestan and Fars provinces. The posters were also seen in Qazvin, northwest Iran, where resistance units marked this day.
In Chabahar, southern Iran, Members of a resistance unit put up a tract of Maryam Rajavi.

Members of the PMOI/MEK Martyr “Azim Naroie” put up a large PMOI/MEK flag to mark this day in Sistan & Baluchistan Province, southeast Iran.

UN Expert Says Human Rights Should Be At The Heart Of The Response To Challenges Faced

Mounting challenges in Iran should be met by a constructive response which places international human rights law at its heart, said Javaid Rehman, the new Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

While noting “potentially diverging views, including on the mandate itself”, the Special Rapporteur said he hoped to “build on the cordial cooperation” extended to him thus far through “constructive engagement” with Iran, and hoped to visit the country.

Presenting his first report to the General Assembly following his appointment in July, the Special Rapporteur welcomed the decision by Iran to amend its drug-trafficking law which led to a marked reduction in the number of those executed for drug offences.

The Special Rapporteur also expressed alarm that Zeinab Sekaanvand was executed on 1 October, noting that “she was the fifth juvenile offender executed this year” following a trial raising numerous due process concerns. He also recalled that there were numerous juvenile offenders currently on death row in Iran, including Mohammad Kalhori, Mehdi Khazaeian, Mohammad Haddadi, Pouria Tabaei, and Saleh Shariati. The Special Rapporteur appealed to the Iranian authorities to abolish the practice of sentencing children to death, and to commute all death sentences issued against children in line with international law.

“The challenges facing people in Iran these past months has been illustrated by numerous protests across the country,” the Special Rapporteur said. He said that the protests were fuelled by discontent relating to the enjoyment of economic and social rights and urged “the Government to both address the grievances underlying the protests, and also safeguard the right to freedom of association and assembly”. “In challenging times, the right to freedom of opinion, expression, and access to information are all the more important.” he added.

Explaining that he will seek to address economic and social rights in the course of his mandate, the Special Rapporteur said he also intended to assess the possible negative impact of sanctions on the enjoyment of such rights.

He further described a number of long-standing issues of concern which he will seek to address including with respect to the right to life and to a fair trial; the recent arrests and treatment of human rights defenders, other civil society actors, and lawyers; and the rights of women, foreign and dual nationals, and groups in vulnerable situations in Iran. The Special Rapporteur, in particular, expressed concern and alarm at the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Iran’s people may revolt due to economic crisis, regime officials say

Youths protesting in Kashan, central Iran (File Photo)

Recently, a large portion of the remarks heard from Iranian regime officials in state media consist of warnings about the regime’s future. Terms such as the “enemy,” “mistrust,” “dangerous times” and “current conditions” are keywords used in these warnings.

Even individuals such as Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the Iranian regime’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, despite his experience in the regime’s intelligence apparatus, is unable to cloak his concerns.

“What will become even more transparent these days is the social gap between various classes. We are facing a reality that there is a trust gap, with people knowing officials will not live up to their pledges. We shouldn’t deny this. Why should we? The reason is that they see our actions differ from our words, and this is seen in different fields of work,” he said in a TV interview on October 12.

Hossein Raghfar, an economy expert working for the Iranian regime, has warned that major food shortages and revolts are in the making for Iran. The economic crisis is pushing people towards revolting against the mullahs’ regime.

“Those who are living on subsidies, they have nothing. We are heading towards riots. These riots are due to economic insecurity. Workers who haven’t been paid, how are they supposed to provide for themselves… and this leads to riots. All these riots will be taking shape,” Raghfar said.

“There will be other riots, seen in the country’s brain drain. There will also be riots against themselves, such as suicides. Other people will be suffering from psychological damages, such as depression. This is another kind of riot in and of itself. And yet another riot is the rise in crimes,” he continued.

According to Raghfar, the main element behind these riots will be severe food shortages and a variety of other revolts. He forecasted an increase in self-immolation and depression, and an unbridled increase in crimes and insecurity, including economic insecurity, and finally, the country’s brain drain crisis. These are all examples of a public revolt.

“A worker that doesn’t get paid has no solution but to revolt,” Raghfar said.

Inflation currently stands at 50%, according to Raghfar, and will reach 80 to 90% at the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 2019), he added. This society will not last under such circumstances, Raghfar continued.

Opposition rallies condemning Iran’s rights violations, terrorism in Europe

PMOI/MEK supporters' rally in Brussels

Supporters of the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) held a demonstration outside 10th Downing Street in London on 20 October 2018 expressing support for protests and strikes by people from all walks of life in Iran.

These demonstrators also protested a new wave of executions and crimes against humanity by the mullahs’ regime, especially in prisons, and terrorist plots blueprinted by the mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry against the PMOI/MEK. The Iranian regime is taking advantage of diplomatic facilities, and using its “diplomats” and operatives across Europe and the United States to continue implementing their terrorist agenda.

In this demonstration, a number of British dignitaries and members of the Iranian Diaspora in the United Kingdom delivered speeches. Their remarks focused on the necessity to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its inhumane crimes and oppressive measures against the Iranian people’s uprising and protests inside the country, and literally exporting terrorism abroad. The mullahs’ crimes are especially vivid in their terror plots targeting the PMOI/MEK and the June 30^th rally in Paris, the speakers said, adding all these emphasize the necessity to blacklist the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

The demonstrators are also calling for an international probe into the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners across Iran’s prisons and the necessity to hold Iranian regime officials accountable for this heinous crime against humanity.

On Monday, PMOI/MEK supporters held a rally outside the European Union headquarters in Brussels condemning vicious executions by the mullahs’ regime inside Iran and terrorist measures carried out against the PMOI/MEK in Europe.

The demonstrators called on the European Union to end its appeasement policy vis-à-vis the Iranian regime and emphasized on the necessity to blacklist the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence, expelling the mullahs’ diplomat terrorists based on a European Parliament document adopted in this regard. These protesters also condemned Tehran’s inhumane crimes.

Belga, a Belgian news agency, covered this demonstration and referred to the Iranian regime’s terrorist plot targeting June rally held near Paris.

“The demonstrators accused Tehran of blueprinting this plot,” he report reads.

Dubai TV also covered this rally saying the protesters are demanding the Iranian diplomats’ expulsion from Europe.

Al Arabiya published a report on this rally saying in the month of October French officials said they have no doubt that the MOIS was behind the Paris bomb plot… In July, Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat, was arrested in German on terrorist charges and eventually extradited to Belgium. He is under prosecution and accused of transferring explosives to a Belgian-Iranian couple intending to bomb the June 30^th rally… this dossier remains under investigation by Belgian judiciary officials.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

President-Elect Maryam Rajavi; The Star Of Hope In Iran’s Sky

On October 21, 1993, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the parliament-in-exile, elected Mrs. Maryam Rajavi as the president-elect for the transition period after the mullahs’ overthrow

Undoubtedly, in the desert of fundamentalism, which is the major threat to the world in our era, a star of hope must be found. This star not only does annihilate the fundamentalists’ regulations and thoughts but also inspires a shining future. Many Iranians, whose country is under the rule of the worst kind of fundamentalism, believe that the president-elect Maryam Rajavi symbolizes this hope.

In her speech against fundamentalism on March 6, 2015, president-elect Maryam Rajavi stated:

“In reality, the crux of the conflict is not between Islam and Christianity. Nor is it between Islam and the West, and nor between the Shia and the Sunni. The conflict is over freedom versus subjugation and dictatorship, between equality on the one hand and oppression and misogyny on the other.”

President-elect Maryam Rajavi, as a symbol of the Iranian struggle toward freedom, believes: “

“Misogyny lies at the core fundamentalist mindset, which by suppressing women oppresses and intimidates society as a whole.”

President-elect Maryam Rajavi; Iranian women’s savior

In 1979, as soon as the mullahs seized power in Iran they began depriving women of their most basic rightsand grading them as the 2nd-grade citizens.

Women are not immune anywhere from medieval constraints and pressures, such as social and economic inequalities, compulsory hijab, the extended gender discrimination in universities, schools, and even buses. Worse, these medieval constraints and pressures include even young girls.

But in the face of the mullahs’ misogyny, there is a hope, symbolized in the president-elect Maryam Rajavi. She lays out a unique roadmap for achieving women rights in a free Iran, including:

Fundamental freedoms and rights
Equality before the law
Freedom of choosing one’s own clothing
Equal participation in political leadership
Equality in the economic sphere
Equality in the family
Prohibition of violence
Prohibition of sexual exploitation
Repealing Mullahs’ Sharia laws
Social benefits

In fact, the roadmap of the president-elect Maryam Rajavi is the same as the dream that the Iranian women expect to enjoy in a free Iran.

President-elect Maryam Rajavi, the nightmare of the inhuman mullahs

Now Iranian women are in the forefront of an uprising that has shaken the earth under the feet of the mullahs’ regime. An uprising that because it is linked to the organized resistance, led by the president-elect Maryam Rajavi, is growing day by day. Therefore, the president-elect Maryam Rajavi, who inspires millions of Iranian protestors, has turned into the nightmare of the Velayat-e Faqih’s regime and the mullahs clearly realize their end will come by the and her supporters.

President-elect Maryam Rajavi: the reviver of “Humanity”

As many freedom-loving Iranians and international figures admit, the reality is that the name of the president-elect Maryam Rajavi is tied with the most important achievements of the resistance of the Iranian people and thus her role and the power of her leadership during the harshest situations of the resistance’s history is praised.

But the origin of the great determination of the president-elect Maryam Rajavi should be sought in her beliefs, in which “Humanity” is the highest value of all. In fact, that is the belief that prompts human values in everyone who meets her arousing an army of prominent personalities and politicians from five continents of the world to support her in achieving a free Iran.

President-elect Maryam Rajavi, the one who will make Iran great

Unfortunately, the 40 years legacy of the mullahs is nothing social, economic and cultural crisis for the people of Iran. In the regional and international arena, the mullahs have demonized Iran’s face by wasting the national wealth on the export of terrorism, obtaining an arsenal of missiles and trying to achieve nuclear bombs.

But at the end of this dark tunnel, there is a light that promises the end of this darkness and ruin.

The herald of a splendid Iran where the talents of oppressed women and youth will flourish and the national funds will be spent on the development and growth of the Iranian industry and agriculture.

A country that seeks prosperity and happiness for its own people and leads the Middle East, which is caught in fire and blood, towards peace and stability; a country whose highest national treasure is its human lives and where no laws trump the will of people.

Yes, this is an Iran that the president-elect Maryam Rajavi is committed to accomplishing and has promised it several years ago in her amazing platform.

Free Iran with the president-elect Maryam Rajavi

On July 30 this year, more than 100,000 Iranian dissents gathered to realize the goal of free Iran at Villepinte at the suburbs of Paris.

A goal, which has been supported by hundreds of prominent international figures who attended this gathering, thanks to the efforts of the president-elect Maryam Rajavi.

In this gathering the president-elect Maryam Rajavi said among the Iranians reveling the event:

Thursday 11 October 2018

The Death Penalty In Iran Should Be Stopped

Since the year 2002, October 10, has been named the International Day against the Death Penalty by dozens of human rights organizations.

The death penalty has been canceled in 104 countries, and in some of these countries, it has been done through a referendum. Also, 50 countries do not use the death penalty or its execution has been stopped. In 6 countries, the death penalty has outdated, except in special cases (such as wartime), and it is only active in 36 countries.

October 10th, World Day against Death Penalty is here. For citizens of countries with governments fixated on executing the cruel and inhuman punishment, it is a reminder that despite world’s grand entrance into the 21st century, there is still a long way to go, before leaving this medieval punishment behind for good.

Iran is a prime example of such a mentality. By scratching the surface and getting a little deeper, for Iran’s rulers, it is not just a mere form of punishment. It is an instrument of spreading fear among the citizens. Even China, with a population 17 times larger than Iran, and a world’s leading advocate of the death penalty, there is hardly any case of public hanging or juvenile execution.

In the case of mullahs in Tehran, execution is a means to an end. It is only used to keep in check the fed up citizens, it is a reminder that dissidence will have dire consequences. The regime has tried throughout its life to sugarcoat and sell it to the rest of the world as a noble contribution in the fight against drug smugglers.

In Iran, people are executed by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. Hundreds are hanged for non-violent drug offenses. This day should involve Iranian regime who have not abolished the death penalty. Iran has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world. The officially announced total number of executions during Rouhani’s tenure has reached 3,602 cases.

According to HRM website: “Since January 2018, at least 223 people have been executed. The executions of at least nine political prisoners and six individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime have been confirmed. 35 executions were carried out in public.”

Nevertheless, the true figures are definitely higher as most executions in Iran are carried out in secret.

A large number of defenseless prisoners are covertly executed in jails across the country and thousands of others are on death row.

Rouhani has specifically said these executions are “either based on God’s laws or the legislation adopted by the parliament… and we are merely implementers.”

Executions, torture, stoning, amputating hands and feet, and gouging out eyes are institutionalized in Iran and literally legalized by this regime’s so-called laws. Executions in Iran have become means to crack down on people’s freedoms and quell social protests.

We call on all human rights organizations and advocates to impel the mullahs’ regime to bring an end to executions in Iran.

We want an Iran free of the death penalty. The abolishment of the death penalty must include Iran, and Iranian people should not be sentenced to death by a regime which uses this punishment to prolong its rule.