The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported on Monday, March 8, marking International Women’s Day.

Transcript of remarks by Lord Alton Eng at the online conference marking International Women’s Day 2021.

The long struggle for freedom in Iran has been truly heroic

I’m pleased to stand with you again today and especially to give my greetings to Mrs. Maryam Rajavi whose long struggle for freedom in Iran has been truly heroic.

on February 17^th, 2021 in a heinous crime, Zahra Esmaili, a female death row prisoner, a mother of 2, died of a heart attack when 16 men were hanged in front of her eyes shortly before her execution, she was nonetheless in a gruesome, barbaric act, hanged in Gohardasht prison in Karaj. Denying dignity and respect in death, as dignity and respect have been denied in life, is a hallmark of the Iranian regime.

 

 

114^th woman to be executed since Rohani took office

Zahra is the 3^rd woman to be executed in Iran in less than a month and the 114^th woman to be executed since the so-called moderate government of Rohani took office. This tragic case describes the appalling situation of women in Iran.

They are denied their most basic rights, they have no protection in their own homes and they can’t even choose their own clothing. One of the regime’s most overlooked victims is the mothers of the Iranian activists who have been cruelly executed.

 

 

November 2019 uprising

Political prisoners and detained activists during the last 40 years, their mothers too, including the 1,500 protestors who were killed in November 2019 when the Supreme leader ordered the security forces to crush the nationwide popular protests, all of them have mothers.

Thousands of more protestors were arrested at the time and subjected to cruel torture like waterboarding, flogging, electric shocks, and mock executions. Imagine this was your son, your brother your husband.

 

 

International Women’s Day

On this day, International Women’s Day, we lend our voices to these grieving mothers and their family members. Victims of the regime demand justice and they demand accountability for the officials and leaders in Iran who are responsible for the extrajudicial killings of their children and the use of widespread torture and cruelty.

And we stand with them. We do so by calling on the United Kingdom government and the European Union governments to impose sanctions on these perpetrators including the Head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raeisi and the Supreme Leader Khamenei under their new Magnitsky style human rights sanction regime to hold them to account.

 

 

The British Committee for Iran Freedom

On February 20^th, with my colleagues in the British Committee for Iran Freedom, we sent a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, expressing our regret over the government’s silence and inaction with regards to Iran’s state terrorism, following the conviction of the Iranian diplomat on terrorism charges in Belgium.

In our letter, we emphasized that a global Britain must have the courage to take the lead in Europe to address the serious threats of Iran state terrorism and we urged the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office and the government to downgrade diplomatic relations with Iran until such a time that Iran provides verifiable proof that it has stopped its state terrorism and terrorist activities.

 

 

The organized opposition and resistance

We also urged the FCDO and the government to investigate whether Iranian diplomats in the UK are involved in similar activities. If that is the case they must be prosecuted and they must be expelled from the United Kingdom.

Ultimately, Iran’s state must be determined by the people of Iran and on this International Women’s Day, we recognize and applaud the many brave Iranian women who are at the forefront of the anti-regime protests in Iran in the last 3 years and who are leading the organized opposition and resistance that is spearheading the struggle for a free and democratic Iran.

 

 

The NCRI president-elect Maryam Rajavi

We know that the NCRI president-elect Maryam Rajavi has presented a democratic alternative to the current theocracy which is summarized in her 10 point platform for a future of Iran.

This platform ensures that in the future leaders are elected by universal suffrage and not selected by the supreme leader. It ensures that in a future Iran, there is gender equality and fundamental rights including the most basic things such as choosing your own clothing, equality before the law, equal participation in political leadership, equality in the economic sphere and within the family and community life.

 

 

The 10 point plan for Iran’s future

This platform empowers and gives voice to the women in Iran who constitute half of the population, it sets out a viable Iranian solution and offers a roadmap for the people of Iran to achieve their rights, their freedoms, and their democracy.

So, I call on the United Kingdom government and the international community to recognize the NCRI and its democratic platform for a future Iran and to support them as the real expression of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people and to reach out to the NCRI President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, as a representative of the Iranian people in their desire for change working with her for a free and a democratic Iran.

 

 

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