Free Iran rally in Washington D.C. held on June 21, 2019- Over 10,000 supporters of MEK rallied in the streets of Washington D.C. and ended up their rally in front of the White House.
The rally was in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and to voice the Iranian people’s quest for regime change by Iranians in Iran.
This summer the MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a series of Free Iran events in world capitals in solidarity with the people’s anti-regime protests in Iran and their stated desire to overthrow the clerical dictatorship currently in power.
Rallies in Brussels; Washington, D.C.; Berlin; and Stockholm drew thousands of demonstrators and attracted news coverage from numerous media outlets around the world. The five-day Free Iran Conference at Ashraf 3, the MEK’s newly-constructed headquarters in Albania, was also widely covered by international press outlets and received attention from the regime’s state-run media as well. The final rally this Saturday in London is expected to attract thousands of attendees.
The goals of this summer’s events extend beyond condemning the Iranian regime and asking the international community to end its financial support of the mullahs. The regime is on its last leg and will fall due to its own corruption and mismanagement even without outside pressure. Depriving the mullahs of support limits its ability to spread terror and bloodshed until its inevitable downfall.
Regime change is on the horizon, and the world wants to know what the alternative will look like. This is what this summer’s Free Iran events accomplished. By giving the international community a glimpse of the MEK and the NCRI, the world had the opportunity to see what Iran will look like once the mullahs have been overthrown.
Showed Ashraf 3 to the World
The choice to host the Free Iran Conference at Ashraf 3 was strategic and bold. The regime has spread propaganda that the MEK is a cult and has portrayed Ashraf 3 as a place that is closed off and secretive. The MEK disproved this conspiracy theory by throwing open its gates for 350 prominent politicians, human rights activists, lawmakers, and dignitaries from around the world and live-streaming the event to the world.
Proved that the MEK Can Rebuild Iran
The mullahs have sown fear that Iran would be devastated by regime change and would be unable to rebuild the country. Ashraf 3 disproved this notion by its very existence. Built on Albanian farmland, Ashraf 3 did not exist 20 months ago. MEK refugees from Camp Liberty in Iraq were relocated to the property after repeated Missile attacks ordered by the Iranian government and built the entire compound from the ground up in 16 months using their own donations. The MEK has shown that it is capable of building a city from nothing in less time than others would require to construct a single building.
Demonstrated Support for the MEK
The mullahs have deployed their propaganda machine to claim that the MEK is a fringe group that has little support within Iran, but Iranian youth who have recently fled the country spoke at Free Iran rallies this summer about the MEK and talked about their reasons for leaving the country and why they joined the MEK while they were in Iran. The regime’s state-run media acknowledges the role the MEK has played in the widespread protests that have engulfed Iran since December 2017.
Showcased the Alternative
Finally, the mullahs claim that any replacement to their rule would be just as bad for the international community as the current regime. This summer, the world heard from hundreds of speakers who praised Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-point Plan for Iran’s Democratic Future. They heard the NCRI’s platform and their commitment to religious freedom, to gender equality, to human rights, and to a non-nuclear Iran. They saw a future that they could believe in, and a Resistance that deserves the world’s support.
Staff writer