Iran has a strong and growing democratic alternative in the form of the NCRI and (PMOI / MEK Iran).

The recent execution of Iran’s champion wrestler, Navid Afkari, as well as the Iranian regime’s policy of torturing political prisoners before using forced confessions as a pretext to issue death sentences featured prominently in the recent virtual trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy, organized by the NCRI.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI), spoke about Navid Afkari and his execution before her introductory speech to the virtual conference. Navid had originally been arrested after attending an anti-regime protest in August 2018.

Mrs. Rajavi said that “today, Navid Afkari lives on in the hearts and struggle of thousands of MEK Resistance Units in Iran who will continue to resist and rise up for freedom and justice.” His execution, after international attempts to persuade the Iranian regime to commute the death sentence imposed on Navid fell on deaf ears, caused huge international outrage as well. It is suspected that the execution was a deliberate attempt by the regime to intimidate Iranians into avoiding any kind of anti-regime protest against corruption and human rights abuses.

In the lead up to the summit, the NCR had emphasized just what was happening on the ground in Iran, especially the activities of the resistance units organized by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran). There have been a number of acts of civil disobedience and demonstrations across Iran as well as more widespread uprisings such as the protest in 2018 in which Navid Afkari was arrested.

Mrs. Rajavi said that “the Iranian people’s uprisings – from December 2017 to November 2019 and January 2020 – have [dispelled] all illusions about the stability of the clerical regime.” She emphasized that for the first time, regime officials and leaders such as Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, referred to the organized presence of the opposition movement. Previously, the MEK has often been dismissed as irrelevant, if referred to at all.

Khamenei said that the December 2017 and January 2018 protests showed that the MEK had been planning them for months. Typical slogans used by protesters included phrases like “Death to the Dictator!”

The medieval Iranian regime may have thought that it had eliminated the MEK as a force to be reckoned with after killing more than 30,000 of its members and supporters in the mass executions of 1988. These secret executions followed token “trails” by small committees, termed “death commissions.” Despite this body blow to the Iranian resistance movement at that time, it never destroyed the MEK, which is now growing in influence day by day.

The fact that Iran has a strong and growing democratic alternative in the form of the NCRI and (PMOI / MEK Iran), has been used by many foreign participants of the recent summit as ammunition intended to persuade Western governments to initiate a more combative and assertive policy towards the Iranian regime.

For example, British MP, David Jones, had this to say at the summit: “The UK and the US and other Western democracies should align themselves with the people of Iran and Madam Rajavi for a viable Iranian-made solution to various current problems.” He said that appeasement by western governments allowed the regime to continue its internal repression and sponsorship of foreign terrorism.

There were several speakers at the summit who said that their governments should have insisted on a thorough investigation of the 1988 massacre of political activists in Iran. Several well-known members of the notorious death commissions back in 1988 are now prominent high ranking officials in the regime.

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Lori Trahan, said: “it’s shameful and infuriating that to this day, no Iranian official has been held accountable for their crimes.”

Other participants said that the regime is incapable of reforming itself. The only hope for Iran and its people is that they will rise up and throw the mullahs out of the office and install a new, free and democratic Iran.