President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, delivered a speech to mark the Iranian new year celebrations. Her Nowruz speech was filled with optimism, as she called on the Iranian diaspora around the world, as well as those living under the repressive regime in Iran, to remain steadfast in their opposition to the regime’s brutality.

She offered particular congratulations to those in Albania, where the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/ MEK) have built a compound complete with shops, meeting halls, dormitories, sports facilities, bakeries, medical buildings, and administrative buildings in just a year. “Let me congratulate you,” Rajavi said.

She spoke with pride about what the Iranian resistance had achieved in 2018, “the year of protests”, “the year in which appeasement failed and the mullahs lost one of their bases for retaining their power.”

Empty Tables

However, Mrs Rajavi also used the Nowruz celebrations to draw attention to the difficulties many face in Iran. “We know that their tables are empty,” she said, “we know that their farms are dry.”

Economic mismanagement and the misuse of public funds has left Iranians struggling to put food on the table. Inflation has skyrocketed. Iranian purchasing power has dropped. Many public workers have not received their wages in several months.

For the farmers, the situation is just as bad. As Rajavi pointed out, their farms have run dry. The mullahs have diverted natural water sources to wealthier areas, leaving farms decimated and agricultural workers in rural parts of the country without the opportunity to earn a basic income.

Maryam Rajavi expressed her solidarity and support for these downtrodden communities. “We are with honest teachers who have been discriminated against and humiliated, sentenced to life below the poverty line and imprisoned,” she said, adding, “we are fighting for the women and children who are burning in poverty and strangulation, especially in the margins of big cities.”

A Regime of Terrorists

Mrs. Rajavi went on to call on the Western powers to add the Iranian regime to their terror lists. “Now it’s time for the devilish force of the Corps (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) to be on the list of terrorist groups in the State Department,” she said.

“The mullahs have no chance of survival,” she concluded. She described how the regime channeled its efforts to damage the MEK in 2018, “they focused their efforts on terrorism and demonization.” “But [they] failed.”

She echoed Massoud Rajavi’s speech in Rasht, “life is continuous in the future, and everyone who is in the future is alive.”

We want an #Iran which is overwhelmed with freedom, where children and youths are happy, where talents bloom, and where women play their role in the leadership of their society. A country that lives in peace, friendship and coexistence with its neighbors.https://t.co/mHgXlaj9rW pic.twitter.com/zVvRW7j4te

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 20, 2019

She concluded, “the Iranian people want freedom and justice. [They] want equality and independence, trust sympathy and coexistence. They want economic and social progress, [an] Iran in which everyone has a right to work.”

“So, rise!”

The gates of #Iran are open to embrace a future without oppression, inequality and injustice. A republic based on the separation of religion and state; a country ruled by its people’s suffrage and sovereignty, where the people’s votes have the first and final words. #Nowruz pic.twitter.com/uINPhpbj6j

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 20, 2019

Staff writer

On March 21st, Iranians will welcome in the Persian New Year. Nowruz, which takes place on the first day of spring, is a celebration of freshness and renewal that predates the clerical regime by well over a thousand years. Nowruz is deeply ingrained in the cultural history of Iran and has persisted despite the mullahs’ attempts to limit public celebrations of the holiday.

The 21st of March, which is the first day of spring, will mark a new year for Iranians.#Iran’s impoverished Nowruz https://t.co/950YgB92HM

— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) March 17, 2019

Iranians celebrate Nowruz by buying new clothes and shoes, preparing Haft-sin tables, doing spring cleaning and decluttering, and hosting out-of-town family members. Large meals are prepared, and older family members give gifts of cash to children.

Economic Crisis

This year’s Nowruz comes in the midst of an economic crisis that has left 80% of the population under the poverty line. Many workers go months without receiving their wages if they are lucky enough to have jobs at all. With the majority of Iranians struggling to make ends meet, families are struggling to find ways to celebrate Nowruz traditions.

Some breadwinners have taken three jobs already just to pay the bills and feed their families. People are now taking additional work hours and cutting out extra expenses, such as eating at restaurants and going on vacations, to pay for Nowruz.

#Iranian regime has brought the people to their knees.

The workers in Kohgiluyeh & Boyer-Ahmad province: " We have nothing, no food, no insurance, no jobs. The authorities do nothing…"

80% of Iranians are under the line of poverty. pic.twitter.com/VcMdYyPWZM

— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) March 1, 2019

In Nowruz 2018, one U.S. dollar was equal to 3,500 tomans, exported tea cost 30,000-40,000 tomans per kilo, red meat cost 40,000 tomans per kilo, and sugar cost 2,800 tomans per kilo.

As of last week, one U.S. dollar is equal to 13,000 tomans, tea costs 140,000-160,000 tomans, red meat costs 120,000 tomans, and sugar costs 8,000-10,000 tomans per kilo.

Rent prices have more than doubled in the past year, and all goods except for bread and gas have more than doubled or tripled.

Wages have remained stagnant over the past year and are only expected to increase by 10-20% over the next year.

The state-run media has also acknowledged the troubling lack of purchases leading up to Nowruz. According to a recent article published by the ILNA news agency, “Neither vendors are happy with the market situation nor customers have a tendency to buy anything. It seems that this year, we start the year unlike any other year with high prices. There is little commotion in the bazaar… Even fruit prices have increased.”

Regime’s Denial

Meanwhile, regime First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri recently claimed that Iran’s economic problems were in the past.

However, this Nowruz is very different from previous ones. Poverty, unemployment and severe economic hardships have gripped the more than 80 million population leaving around 80% under the line of poverty. pic.twitter.com/yDUTYJUjGK

— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) March 17, 2019

The Iranian people are not fooled by the regime’s false claims. They know that the economic crisis is not over. That is plain. And they know that the responsibility for the problem lies at the feet of the regime. Anti-regime protests take place on a daily basis in Iran, and the MEK’s Resistance Units grow stronger each day. The people know that there is an alternative to the corruption and mismanagement of the mullahs’ regime.

Staff writer

The latest round of protests shows the determination of the Iranian people to secure regime change. With the government in distress, a Nowruz could be on the horizon in Iran’s political sphere.

 

As the Iranian calendar year draws to a close, citizens honor the occasion with fires and fireworks. But this year is different. The festivities ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, are not just inflammatory in their choice of incendiaries to mark the occasion.

The Iranian government tried to stop the public from celebrating Chaharshanbe Suri, the pre-Islamic tradition of jumping over a fire to symbolize purification and a new beginning. In a move of defiance, the Iranian people used these celebrations of a new beginning, to ignite a fresh round of protests nationwide.

Nowruz translates as “new day”. This is precisely what the Iran opposition wants. Iran’s opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK) called on the Iranian population to rise up again in search of freedom.

These protests ahead of Nowruz have been the latest in a long string of uprisings from the Iran opposition movement. Previous protest movements included the general strike of Baneh, the protests from steelworkers in Isfahan, protests from workers in a sugarcane factory in Khuzistan and a farmer’s protest in east Isfahan.

The hope from the opposition (MEK) is that this Nowruz represents a new dawn in Iran. It hopes to build on the momentum of the protests movement and trigger regime change in the coming year.

There are already indications that the coming year could be MEK and the opposition’s most promising yet. According to Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian government faces some stiff challenges in the year ahead. There is an internal fight over Khamenei’s heir and an impending financial crisis. There have also been defections from the government’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGG). Trump in the US has distanced himself from the policy of appeasement pursued by his predecessor, Obama. The US has continued to impose sanctions targeting Iran’s repressive IRGC. Also, the international community seems to be realizing Iran’s destructive role in the region and may be turning against Tehran, as it insists on its Ballistic Missile program. Therefore the government looks to be in trouble.

No threat is greater for the regime than the gathering momentum on the protest movement. The latest protests ahead of Nowruz show the determination in the country to oppose the government’s tyranny. The last round of intense protest took place in December and January. The government responded with a bloody crackdown on dissenters. It arrested more than 8,000. Over 50 protestors died in custody. But this has not deterred protestors.

This determination is the single biggest threat to the Iranian regime. Young, determined Iranians are the people who make history. They are the ones who can usher in a new dawn, a Nowruz, in Iranian politics. And if they can carry this momentum forward, it is only a matter of time before Tehran finds it cannot defy the people any longer.