Marzieh was a member of the NCRI and the advisor on artistic affairs to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. She was also a staunch supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran ‎‎(PMOI / MEK Iran). ‎

The 13 of October 2020 marks the 10^th anniversary of the death of the beloved musician, Marzieh, known as the diva of Iranian music, and as an icon of the Iranian resistance. Marzieh was not only the most celebrated singer in Iran in the 20^th century but also a passionate opponent to the misogyny and crimes of the regime. She refused to be silenced by the regime and, later in her life, fought for the rights of Iranian women and stood alongside the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran).

Born Khadijeh Ashraf o-Sadat Mortezaie, on the 22^nd of March 1924, into a family of artists, Marzieh showed artistic promise from an early age. She was trained by the prominent musicians of the time, Abolhassan Saba and Esmail Mehrtash, and started her career in opera. She performed as the leading female role in “Shirin and Farhad,” a story as significant in Iran as Romeo and Juliet. This performance is what elevated her career to celebrity status.

Marzieh performed across the world in Germany, the UK, and the USA, amongst others. She was also the first woman to ever take part in the most celebrated radio program at the time in Iran, The Colorful Flowers, which had a transformative effect on the Iranian music scene. As a pioneering musician with a great sense of purpose, she was a role model and inspiration to many Iranian women.

After the revolution of 1979, the regime enforced a misogynistic rule upon the women of Iran and banned Marzieh, with all other female Iranian performers, from performing in public. She was forced into seclusion as a musician and left her beloved Iran in 1994, seeking greater freedom.

In Paris, she was introduced to the MEK, and the broader coalition of the resistance movements to the Iranian regime, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The NCRI is a parliament-in-exile and campaigns, along with the MEK, for a democratic and free Iran. Marzieh was impressed by the continuous efforts of the NCRI and MEK, particularly with the focus and dedication to the liberation of women that the groups strive towards. At the age of 70, she joined both groups, becoming an art advisor to the NCRI President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.

Marzieh visited Iraq in the late 1990s to meet with thousands of MEK members, including around 1000 women, living in the former base of the MEK, in Camp Ashraf. She returned to France and used her fame as a musician to spread international awareness of the shocking human rights abuses and crimes against humanity committed by the theocratic rule of the regime. The mullahs’ responded by terrorizing her and her family, even imprisoning her daughter, in an attempt to intimidate her back into her former seclusion. However, she refused to stop her support for the MEK, the NCRI, and the Iranian people.

In her later years, Marzieh sang, with unbridled passion and a deep sense of care, about the thousands of lives that have been lost in the struggle for freedom in Iran and those still imprisoned for their contribution to the cause. She also sang of hope for the future of Iran and the day when the regime falls to a new era of democracy, human rights, and liberation in Iran. Marzieh embodied the independent and free spirit of the Iranian people, and impassioned listeners to continue to believe in a brighter future, making her a true icon of democracy in Iran.

Marzieh, the Iranian nation’s treasure trove of art, laid to rest at Auvers-Sur-Oise. She was a staunch supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran ‎‎(PMOI / MEK Iran). ‎

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and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube