By Published On: May 28, 2020Categories: Defenders of Freedom, NEWS
Maryam Rajavis

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the (NCRI), delivered a video message to supporters of the MEK.

On May 24, the eve of Eid-al-Fitr, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), delivered a video message to supporters of the MEK and the Iranian Resistance. Her remarks focused on the significance of Eid, the anniversary of the execution of the founders of the MEK, and the regime’s shameful response to the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating effects in Iran, which has cost almost 45,000 lives in 323 cities across the country.

Highlights of Mrs. Rajavi’s speech are included below:

On the True Meaning of Eid

At the beginning of her speech, Mrs. Rajavi reflected on the MEK’s interpretation of Eid-al-Fitr and its promise of victory.

Supporters of the MEK.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the (NCRI), delivered a video message of Eid-al-Fitr.

“For members of the PMOI/MEK, Eid al-Fitr represents a universal celebration of freedom, and a reunion with the true essence of humanity in confrontation with the rule of the Shah (monarchical dictatorship) and the Sheikh (theocracy),” she said.

“Eid al-Fitr bears the promise of victory and is the indispensable destination of our society, whose anger erupted like a volcano during the November 2019 protests.

“For our people whose discontent and defiance have been accumulating against the mullahs, day by day under the pressure of the coronavirus crisis, and for the rebellious youth and Resistance Units who are counting down the days to overthrow the mullahs’ criminal regime, Eid al-Fitr is the promise of certain triumph,” Mrs. Rajavi continued.

“Eid al-Fitr celebrates humanity breaking free from chains of coercion and servitude. It is a celebration of the power of humanity’s willpower and its capabilities,” she emphasized.

“Eid al-Fitr shows that a human being’s fundamental qualities, consciousness, and the ability to choose, can shape his or her behavior. Human beings are not doomed to arrive at a certain destiny. They are not hapless. They are not doomed to be blind followers. They are not doomed to be seized by their instincts. Human beings have an endless power to build a new world and new relations based on emancipation and equality. They are fully capable of fighting exploitative ideologies and those that run counter to the tide of evolution,” she added.

“Imam Ali said that the purpose of fasting is not self-mortification or deprivation. It is, rather, akin to waging a type of struggle or battle,” she explained.

“Everyone who fasts and all Muslims must answer this question: fasting is a fight against which forces?” Mrs. Rajavi said. “The answer is: against forces that deprive human beings of their essential human nature and core identity; forces that take away humanity’s combative willpower in the realms of individuality and society, combating against systems and ideologies that enslave human beings. In contemporary times, these forces are personified in the regimes of the Shah and the Sheikh (mullahs).”

“It is out of this struggle and battle that the Fitr or true freedom emerges,” she continued.

“So, like other Eids, the message of Eid al-Fitr focuses on the essence of humanity and the glorious destiny of human beings. The same humanity that during the Eid of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) praises its endless ability to make sacrifices.

“The same humanity that during the month of Ramadan shows the definitive power of its consciousness and willpower pledges to write its own fate during the Night of Destiny, and celebrates its victory in the Eid al-Fitr,” Mrs. Rajavi added.

Mrs. Rajavi concluded her remarks on Eid-al-Fitr with a statement on the ultimate goal of Eid. “According to the PMOI/MEK teachings, ‘Every Eid represents a return to the soul and coordinating and aligning with it; an evolutionary and conscious return to the origin and fountainhead of liberation and salvation. It is not about retreating or aimless repetition and it is not a vicious circle. Rather, it is all about a tortuous and blood-drenched struggle and an enduring path to shake off all the semblances of alienation and overcome the obstacles of achieving unity and harmony,” she stressed,

‘This is how humankind overcomes divisions and separations, including forms of discriminations based on gender, ethnicity, or social classes. In the end, by reining in his cruel instincts, which are common with animals, humanity overcomes the compulsions and paves the way towards a world commanded by consciousness and free choice. Thus humanity unravels the unmatched secret and mystery that defines its divine being,” she added.

On Khamenei’s Self-serving Response to the Coronavirus

Mrs. Rajavi discussed the regime’s coverup of the coronavirus and its failure to protect the health and wellbeing of its people in the next section of her speech.

“In the great uprising of November 2019, the mullahs clearly saw that their regime is trapped in a vortex of destruction and they have no options to save it from inevitable overthrow,” she said.

“Therefore, several weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly spread throughout the country due to the mullahs’ own inhuman policies, they attempted to conceal the ambers of discontent under the ashes with a thick cover of the coronavirus crisis,” she continued.

“With the outbreak of the pandemic, the mullahs found themselves in an extremely critical position. As the state-run press noted, they clearly saw that ‘the slightest miscalculation in managing the disease’ would spell an existential catastrophe and they would — and will — be the biggest losers of the crisis,” she added.

Mrs. Rajavi explained that this was the reason why the regime chose to focus on security rather than coronavirus response. She elaborated, saying: “They refused to allocate the minimum budget for treating patients in order to avoid the slightest reduction in the financial pot that has been allocated to suppression inside Iran and to warmongering and commission of other crimes in the region.

“They refused to use the resources and equipment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Army for the treatment of patients so that they could have all the resources at hand to preserve the regime’s security.

“They avoided using even a penny from the wealth accumulated in Khamenei’s Setad (or Headquarters conglomerate) or other plundering foundations to fight against the pandemic,” she said.

“Instead, they increased the prices of commodities and food, such as bread. And, they paved the way for the spike in the value of foreign currencies in order to replenish the coffers of a bankrupt government,” she continued.

“Indeed, when it came down to a choice between using foreign exchange reserves and other financial sources to avert an economic collapse on the one hand, and sending off underprivileged and hardworking people to production centers, on the other hand, the regime’s leaders chose the latter option and thus caused a further spread of the disease,” she added.

Mrs. Rajavi described one of the effects of this policy. “Today, Khuzestan Province has turned into a killing field for the coronavirus,” she said. “In mid-May, more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients lost their lives in this province, demonstrating just one outcome of the regime’s inhuman policy. The clerical regime’s officials openly admit that the soaring number of infections began on April 11, when the regime ordered a re-opening.

“In reality, Khamenei wants to use the coronavirus crisis as a beneficial parameter to prolong the regime’s survival,” she added.

On the Regime’s Fear of the MEK and Iranian Resistance

Mrs. Rajavi used regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s own words to demonstrate the regime’s fear of the MEK in the next section of her speech. “On May 17, Khamenei admitted that the regime has not been able to exploit the outbreak for its own benefit, and as an opportunity to prolong its survival. Therefore, he attacked the PMOI/MEK while calling for a young Hezbollahi government following in the footsteps of a henchman like Qassem Soleimani,” she said.

“Khamenei pointed to a large number of youth who joined the ranks of the PMOI/MEK after the 1979 revolution. He wanted to focus the attention of his mercenaries on the great threat gripping the regime in the current situation, namely the youth’s draw, and attraction to the PMOI/MEK and Resistance Units,” she continued.

“He urged the regime’s forces to draw a solid red line between themselves and supporters of the PMOI/MEK and to forge a front against them. He said: ‘Do everything you can to expand (the regime’s) ranks and recruit,’ adding: ‘Of course, I do not mean recruiting hypocrites (PMOI/MEK).’

“Khamenei then warned the regime’s forces that they must be careful about the inevitable orientation of protests and uprisings toward the overthrow of the regime, adding: ‘Don’t allow demands and protests to be interpreted as a protest against the Islamic system. This is important. … Seriously prevent this from happening,’” she went on, quoting Khamenei.

“What the regime’s tyrant has said represents a political watershed moment. Initially, he wanted to exploit the situation arising from the coronavirus spread as a means of averting the regime’s overthrow. Now, he has exposed the discord and divisions at the helm of the regime and is urging the young generation not to support the PMOI/MEK, Mrs. Rajavi emphasized.

On the Plundering of the Iranian People’s Wealth

Mrs. Rajavi denounced the regime for spending billions of funding dictators abroad while Iranians live in poverty. She said: “Just recently, the former chairman of the regime’s parliamentary Security and Foreign Policy Committee confessed that so far $30B from the Iranian people’s wealth has been spent on propping up the murderous dictator of Syria and that the regime pockets about 200 billion tomans (roughly $11.5 million) every day as a result of increasing gasoline prices. That is the blood-stained money that was taken by the regime while killing Iranian protesters (in November 2019).”

On the Inevitable Downfall of the Regime

Mrs. Rajavi commented on the regime’s lack of a sustainable strategy and its instability, remarking that it will inevitably be overthrown.

“Today, all of the causes and factors that triggered the vast November 2019 uprising are not only still in place, but they have been considerably aggravated due to the coronavirus catastrophe and the mullahs’ inhuman policy response,” she said.

“The economy is contracting by 9%, the inflation rate ranges from 50% to 60%, the government budget has a 50% deficit, and the devaluation trend of the national currency continues, with the regime slashing four zeros from it. All this indicates that the regime’s economy is on the verge of collapse,” she continued.

“Today, the erosion of the regime has not only been reversed but under the pressure of social protests and political and economic failures, the entirety of the regime has been rendered weak and powerless. Half of Rouhani’s government is essentially not operational. The regime’s spokesmen and officials cannot do anything other than to lie. Regime institutions are engaged in infighting and quarrels, and Khamenei is setting the stage to take down Rouhani’s government,” she went on.

“Today, not only the force capable of overthrowing the regime has not been stopped even after being subjected to numerous suppressive measures and arrests, but it has rather multiplied among the younger generations, and its fighting spirit shown in Resistance Units has exhausted the enemy, she stressed.

“Yes, the mullahs have failed to exploit the coronavirus situation and the people’s poverty and destitution to hide the fact that they are on the verge of being overthrown,” she added.

On the Execution of the MEK’s Founders

Mrs. Rajavi took the time to honor the founders of the MEK who were executed in 1971 and to discuss the importance of their sacrifice to the Iranian Resistance.

“It is the 48th anniversary of the year that (the MEK’s founders) Hanifnejad and his friends became eternal. While this day is drenched in blood, it contains the cornerstone for the Fitr of liberation for the Iranian people,” Mrs. Rajavi said.

“The bullets that were fired at the most loving spirits of our time in that blood-stained dawn sparked a vast fury that ultimately brought down the Shah’s dictatorship,” she continued.

“We renew our endless praise for Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen, Ali Asghar Badizadegan, Mahmoud Asgarizadeh, and Abdol-Rasoul Meshkinfam, who were all executed by a firing squad of the Shah’s regime in 1972,” she said.

“The Shah could never imagine the social whirlwind that would result from these executions in Iran. Similarly, even though the mullahs have put in practice all the lessons learned from the experience of the Shah in order to prevent their own downfall, but after the execution and massacre of the PMOI/MEK and murdering of rebellious youth, they have eliminated all other options for their miserable rule and have instead opened the path toward their ultimate overthrow,” she emphasized.

“It was in that tumultuous and blood-drenched spring in 1972 that Massoud (Rajavi) assured Hanifnejad that his generation will persevere,” she added.

Mrs. Rajavi concluded her remarks with a call for the Iranian Resistance to rise up and “spread the flames of resistance and hope everywhere, ensuring that these flames burn ever brighter.”

“That is how the Fitr of the Iranian people’s liberation will arrive, and that is how freedom will dawn on Iran,” she said.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!