MEK Resistance Units across the country commemorated the founders.
Forty-eight years ago this week, the founders of the main opposition to the Iranian regime, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), were killed. The founders, Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeid Mohsen, and Ali Asghar Badizadegan, were executed on 25th May 1972 by the Shah’s regime.
Hanifnejad, Mohsen, and Badizadegan founded the (PMOI / MEK Iran) in 1965. It was a time of great political turmoil where political activists and dissidents faced severe repression. The country’s monarch at that time, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had a brutal police force that acted relentlessly to silence all opposition groups and members.
Hanifnejad, Mohsen, and Badizadegan were courageous enough to defy this rule and they made it very clear that they wanted the overthrow of the Shah regime in favor of democracy and freedom. They had a long and difficult road ahead of them, but it did not deter them. They had the people’s desire for freedom and democracy at the forefront of everything they did and they led the way for a movement that continues to this day.
Hanifnejad, Mohsen, and Badizadegan were arrested in 1971 and were sentenced to death. They were offered clemency if they turned their back on their quest, but they refused and paid the ultimate price.
Their sacrifice allowed the flame of resistance to continue burning and people across the country have not forgotten what they and the martyrs since have achieved. The people of Iran, even the young people of Iran who were not even alive at the time, are grateful for the example these founders set. And they vow to ensure that the ultimate goal is finally achieved.
Marking this anniversary, members of the MEK Resistance Units across the country commemorated the founders. Commemorations took place in several major cities including Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Qom, Khoramabad, Urmia, Beluchestan, Karaj, Yazd, Rasht, Islam Abad, Ahwaz, Qazvin, Gorgan, Bandar Deylam, Mahshahr, Rafsanjan, Babolsar, Lorestan, and Behbahan, to name just a few.
These commemorations serve to show the people of Iran that sacrifices have been made for many decades, but that they have not been in vain. The Iranian Resistance has paid a huge price in the name of freedom, but it is moving closer towards freedom and democracy every day.
Showing the Iranian regime that the people of Iran are not going to be silenced, MEK Resistance Units hung posters and banners across cities declaring their determination to continue on the path that was laid before them. Banners include messages such as the following: “The sacrifices of the MEK founders on May 25, 1972, opened the path for change in our history”, “The founder of the MEK kept alive at any price the flame of resistance in prison”, “By commemorating the executed founders of the MEK on May 25, 1972, we will continue their path”, and “The morning of May 25, 1972, was stained with the blood of someone who turned the pages of his country’s history.”