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A glimpse at the life of Maryam Rajavi |
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Monday, 15 November 2004 |
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Page 1 of 3 The biography
Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She
has a degree in metallurgy from Sharif University of Technology in
Tehran.
Rajavi began her activities during the anti-shah movement in early
1970s, as one of the leaders of the student movement while studying at
the University.
The Shah's regime executed one of her sisters, Narges, and the Khomeini
regime murdered another, Massoumeh, who died under torture in 1982
while eight months pregnant. Massoumeh's husband, Massoud Izadkhah, was
also executed.
After the 1979 Revolution, Rajavi became a leading figure in the Social
Section of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and
played an important role in recruiting university and high school
students into the ranks of the movement. At the time, the PMOI quickly
emerged as the principal opposition movement to the clerical regime. In
1980, Rajavi was among candidates for the parliamentary elections in
Tehran and received more than a quarter million votes, despite
widespread vote fraud by the government.
Mrs. Rajavi was involved in organizing peaceful demonstrations in
Tehran in April and June 1981 in protest against the government's
increasingly repressive policies. When half-a-million Mojahedin
supporters marched peacefully in Tehran on June 20, 1981, to demand
respect for freedoms, Khomeini unleashed his reign of terror. Hundreds
were killed or wounded and thousands arrested on that day.
In 1982, Rajavi left Iran for France. In Paris, she quickly emerged as
the most capable and qualified woman in the movement and was eventually
elected as the PMOI's Joint-Leader in 1985. Four years later, during a
plenary session of the PMOI's Congress in 1989, Rajavi was elected as
the Organization's Secretary General.
President-elect
In August 1993, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the
Iranian Resistance's parliament, elected Maryam Rajavi as Iran's future
president for the transitional period following the mullahs' overthrow.
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