Maryam Rajavi

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Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi, Iranian political activist, born in 1953 in Tehran, Iran. Currently she is President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella coalition of which the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (also known as People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI) are a member organisation.

Born Maryam Azodanlu, she is a wife of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of PMOI. She also has a 22-year-old daughter named Ashraf.

1 Biography
2 President-elect by NCRI
3 Women's rights
4 Charting the future
5 Raid of June 17, 2003
6 Second anniversary of June 17 raid
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Biography

Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She has a degree in metallurgy from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.

Rajavi began her activities during the anti-shah movement in early 1970s, as one of the leaders of the student movement while studying at the University.

The Shah's regime executed one of her sisters, Narges, and the Khomeini regime executed another, Massoumeh, who was alleged to have died under torture in 1982 while eight months pregnant. Massoumeh's husband, Massoud Izadkhah, was also executed ^{[citation needed]}.

After the 1979 Revolution, Rajavi became a leading figure in the Social Section of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (AKA Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) and Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK)) which is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States [1], and played an important role in recruiting university and high school students into the ranks of the movement. At the time, the PMOI quickly emerged as the principal opposition movement to the clerical regime. In 1980, Rajavi was among candidates for the parliamentary elections in Tehran and received more than a quarter million votes, despite widespread vote fraud by the government.

Mrs. Rajavi was involved in organizing peaceful demonstrations in Tehran in April and June 1981 in protest against the increasingly repressive policies of the Khomeini government.

In 1982, Rajavi left Iran for France. In Paris, she quickly emerged as the most capable and qualified woman in the movement and was eventually elected as the PMOI's Joint-Leader in 1985. Four years later, during a plenary session of the PMOI's Congress in 1989, Rajavi was elected as the Organization's Secretary General.

However with the alleged peaceful demonstrations it should be noted PMOI aka MKO had an armed wing in Iraq who used terrorism in Iran which has killed innocent people as well as assassinated Iranian officials which has only isolated the organisation from ordinary Iranian people.

[edit] President-elect by NCRI

In August 1993, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Iranian Resistance's parliament, elected Maryam Rajavi as Iran's future president for the transitional period following the mullahs' overthrow.

Rajavi subsequently resigned from her other positions to focus on her new responsibility as the President-elect.

In this capacity, Rajavi directed the Resistance's campaign on the international scene, leading an effort to expose alleged human rights violations in Iran, Tehran's alleged support of terrorism and fundamentalism and its alleged bid to acquire nuclear weapons. She also informed the world community about the objectives of the Iranian Resistance.

As a Muslim woman, Rajavi presented a political, social, cultural and ideological challenge in her new position as the President-elect to traditionalist mullahs.

[edit] Women's rights

Under Rajavi's guidance, women assumed the most senior positions of responsibility in political, international and military arenas within the ranks of the Resistance. Women make up half the members of the NCRI. A third of the Resistance's military arm, the National Liberation Army of Iran, and two-thirds of its commanders are women. The PMOI's Leadership Council is comprised entirely of women.

Delegations from the Iranian exile community, among them Iranian professionals, academics and artists, came to meet her.

Rajavi has given lectures on the modern, democratic version of Islam versus the fundamentalist interpretation of the religion. For her, the most prominent distinction between these two diametrically opposed viewpoints is the issue of women.

She also paid special attention to Iran's rich, but endangered, artistic and cultural heritage.

Maryam Rajavi was the keynote speaker at the international conference, "United against Fundamentalism and for Equality," held in Paris on Feb. 26, 2005 on the initiative of several women's rights organisations to discuss the threat posed by fundamentalists to women's rights and status.

[edit] Charting the future

In a speech to 15,000 Iranians in Dortmund on June 16, 1995, Rajavi presented a 16-point "Charter of Fundamental Freedoms" for the post-mullah Iran. Mrs. Rajavi also presented the platform of the Resistance for the future of Iran, emphasizing its commitment to the freedom of speech, opinion, the press, parties and political associations, as well as free elections. She emphasized that elections would serve as the sole basis in determining the legitimacy of government. Rajavi also rejected the Iranian mullahs' manipulation of Islam.

In the past decade, Rajavi has been invited by parliamentarians in different European countries. She visited Great Britain^{[citation needed]}, Norway^{[citation needed]} and the European Parliament^{[citation needed]}, where she addressed groups of parliament deputies and met many political dignitaries.

In December 2004, Rajavi was the guest of honour at the European Parliament^{[citation needed]} at the invitation of the First vice-President of the parliament. There she addressed Members of the European Parliament about the current crisis in Iran and the way to deal with the Iran issue. Rajavi said that she believes that a foreign war was not the correct option yet at the same time she denounced Western appeasement of the mullahs' regime. Instead she offered a "third option", namely democratic change through the Iranian people and their Resistance.

Rajavi has been both the target of Iranian terrorism and assassination^{[citation needed]}, (her residence north of Paris had been the target of Iranian Intelligence Ministry's (VEVAK) agents^{[citation needed]}. German police arrested a number of VEVAK agents attempting to transport mortar rounds to there. VEVAK has also launched a demonization campaign against the Iranian opposition as a whole and Rajavi in particular. Information about this campaign has been made public by Iranian exiles at www.iranterror.com.

[edit] Raid of June 17, 2003

On June 17, 2003, over 1,300 French anti-terrorist police in a coordinated effort raided the homes of Iranian dissidents and the offices of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Some 165 activists including Rajavi were arrested. The French government charged that the Iranian opposition was bringing its base of operations to France though the NCRI said that the raid was conducted as part of France's appeasement policy towards Iran. Supporters of the NCIR launched protests and hunger strikes, and sought the support of prominent persons. On July 3, 2003, French courts ruled that the government did not have a case to hold Maryam Rajavi or any of the 165 people arrested in prison and all were released. [2]

[edit] Second anniversary of June 17 raid

20,000 Iranians and French citizens attended a gathering at Cergy soccer Stadium, north of Paris, on the anniversary of the raid on the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the arrest of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect.

The participants called for the removal restrictions against the Iranian Resistance and the closing of the file in this case. They also declared that the boycott's of Iranian election's reflected that the government in its entirety was illegitimate and that indicated the desire of the Iranian people for the overthrow of the ruling theocracy.

Parliamentarians from France and other countries, as well as representatives from human rights organizations attended and addressed the rally, that was sponsored by 30 French human rights and non-governmental organizations.

The family of martyrs joined Mrs. Rajavi in laying wreath at the martyrs' memorial. Delegations of Iranian athletes and national champions also attended and addressed the rally.