Maryam Rajavi’s Message to the Australian Parliament

On the occasion of the 38th anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran and amidst a sharp rise in political executions, a conference on the human rights situation in Iran was held on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, at the Australian Federal Parliament. The event focused on condemning the ongoing executions and supporting the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy.

The conference was attended by members of the Australian Parliament and Senators across various political parties, along with Australian political figures, human rights advocates, and representatives of the Iranian Australian community.

The event opened with a video message from Maryam Rajavi. Highlighting evidence and documentation of widespread human rights violations in Iran, she urged the Australian government to advocate for referring the dossier of the Iranian regime’s human rights violations to the United Nations Security Council in light of these ongoing abuses.

Dr. Phil Glendenning, founding director of Edmund Rice Centre International and former president of the Refugee Council of Australia, then thanked Ms. Rajavi for her years of steadfast dedication to defending freedom, democracy, and human values. He expressed his support for the Iranian people’s resistance and the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) plan for a transitional government.

Following this, Rob Mitchell, Chair of the Australian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science, thanked the Iranian Australian community for their tireless efforts to raise awareness about the situation in Iran. He emphasized the critical need to support the Iranian people, affirming that the Australian government and its policymakers will continue to stand in solidarity with them.

Senator Paul Scarr, Chair of the Parliamentary Privileges Standing Committee representing Queensland and member of the Liberal Party, was also among the speakers at the meeting. Expressing support for Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan and the proposal for a transitional government following the end of religious dictatorship in Iran, he stressed the necessity of backing the Iranian people.

Speakers at the conference called for international accountability for regime leaders, as well as the officials and perpetrators responsible for widespread human rights violations, killings, and executions in Iran over the past four decades.

The text of Maryam Rajavi’s message to the conference is as follows:

Maryam Rajavi: Iran- From 1988 Massacre To Executions Today

Honorable members of the Parliament of Australia,
My fellow compatriots in Australia,

I am pleased to meet you all.
This conference is held to mark the 38th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iran.
In July 1988, Khomeini, the founder of religious dictatorship in Iran, issued the decree for the execution of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in prisons across the country.
He ordered that PMOI prisoners who remained steadfast in their positions be executed immediately.
This referred to those who, despite years of torture and abuse, refused to abandon the struggle for the freedom of the Iranian people.
Subsequently, 30,000 people, 90 percent of whom were members of the PMOI, were hanged.
This book contains the names of five thousand PMOI members who were massacred.

The Regime Has Maintained the Pattern of the 1988 Massacre

Why did the regime commit this horrible crime?
Because it saw, and still sees, the PMOI as the main threat to its existence.
Because it was afraid of being overthrown, and this is a fear that continues to this day.
Throughout the past thirty-eight years, the regime has maintained the pattern of the 1988 massacre.
Every time, it brutally suppresses the people’s resistance and uprisings.
Despite all this, the resistance to change the regime continues.
The people continue to rise up in protest.
The Resistance Units, which are part of the organized PMOI network in Iranian cities, carried out two hundred anti-repression operations across Iran’s provinces in the past month.
In recent months, nine members of the PMOI have been executed.
Dozens of other young individuals who participated in the uprising have also been hanged.
In the regime’s courts, they bravely declared that they had risen up to overthrow the regime, and just before their execution, they collectively sang songs of freedom inside prison.
I must highlight the words of Mehdi Khanaki, a member of the PMOI. He was a 26-year-old law graduate who was recently hanged on July 22.
In one of his final letters, Mehdi wrote: “As a Resistance Unit from our captive homeland, Iran, I pledge to remain faithful to the freedom, justice, and liberation of Iran.”
Mehdi and others who were executed represent Iran’s young generation who have taken up the fight to overthrow the regime.
The regime welcomes war conditions that have lasted for about 15 months, using the situation as cover to confront its main enemy: the Iranian people and Resistance.

The Regime’s Deadly Impasse

Amid the war, the ruling regime also attempts to conceal its fundamental weakness.
Its empty show of force is a major deception. A clear sign of the regime’s deadly impasse are deep divides at the top of the ruling establishment.
Today in Iran, only those who want the dictatorship to continue are advocating for war.
On one side is the ruling regime. On the other are the remnants of the Shah’s regime, who, through exaggeration and media lies, attempt to return Iran to the previous monarchical dictatorship that was overthrown.
They have stated that their goal is to bring back SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police. This is the same agency responsible for torturing and killing thousands of opponents.
They have also said their goals include suppressing nationalities and establishing martial law a state of emergency. However, their most significant political impact has been helping the current regime stay in power.
A country whose people pay such a heavy price for freedom, such as the 1988 massacre, will neither tolerate the current dictatorship nor return to the past.
In this regard, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has raised the flag of peace and freedom. The NCRI, a coalition of the PMOI and other groups, was formed 45 years ago.
The NCRI represents the desire of the majority of the Iranian people for a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state, and free elections.

The Iranian Resistance’s Demand to Stop the Executions

For years, the Iranian Resistance has pursued a justice movement for the victims of the 1988 massacre.
In the very first weeks following the start of the killings, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, Massoud Rajavi, sent telegrams to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, exposing the secret decree for the massacre alongside a campaign of widespread arrests and executions.
As a result of these efforts, the United Nations General Assembly included the issue of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in its resolution for the first time last year.
Also in 2024, Professor Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, published a very important report on the 1988 massacre, describing it as a crime against humanity and genocide.
We expect the international community, and particularly the Australian Parliament and government, to take the initiative in adopting effective measures against the massacres and executions in Iran. These include:
• Prosecuting Iran’s ruling criminals by governments under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
• Referring the case of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, as a crime against humanity, along with the regime’s other major crimes against the Iranian people, to the UN Security Council.
• Including an end to executions in Iran as a key demand of the entire Iranian people in any international agreement.