Who is Maryam Rajavi?

Maryam Rajavi was born into a middle-class family in Tehran. One of her brothers, Mahmoud, is a veteran member of the PMOI/MEK and was a political prisoner during the Shah’s regime.
Her older sister, Narges, was killed by the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, in 1975.
Her other sister, Massoumeh, an industrial engineering student, was arrested by the clerical regime in 1982. Pregnant at the time, she was ultimately hanged after undergoing brutal torture. Massoumeh’s husband, Massoud Izadkhah, was also executed.

Education and Early Activism

Maryam Rajavi graduated with honors from the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in metallurgical engineering.
She joined the PMOI/MEK to participate in the popular resistance against the two corrupt dictatorships of the Shah and the mullahs. In the 1970s, during her college years, she organized anti-Shah student protests.

Parliamentary Candidacy and Post-Revolution Activities

In 1980, she ran for a seat in Parliament from Tehran. But, due to widespread voter fraud by the new fundamentalist regime, none of the opposition candidates made it into Parliament. Despite the scam, Maryam Rajavi received over 250,000 votes.
She was a prominent organizer of the student movement and its demonstrations after the overthrow of the Shah. She played a crucial role in attracting high school and university students to the freedom movement. Mrs. Rajavi was one of the architects of two major peaceful demonstrations in Tehran in May and June 1981 against the rising dictatorship.

PMOI’s leadership: A new era of women’s struggle

In 1984, she became the first woman in modern Iranian history to lead a major political organization. She became co-leader of the PMOI/MEK before being elected its secretary-general four years later.
During this period, a generation of women stepped into challenging leadership roles under her guidance, bringing about a historical change in the PMOI/MEK. The female cadres of the People’s Mojahedin faced one of the most complex political battles in contemporary history against a cruel religious dictatorship. During the last three decades, competent women have been elected to head the PMOI. A woman is presently the organization’s secretary-general.

President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is a parliament in exile. It was established in 1981 in Tehran to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and establish a republic based on universal suffrage, secularism, and non-nuclear power.
As the most longstanding political coalition in Iran’s history, the NCRI is seen as an existential threat to Iran’s ruling religious dictatorship.

Role within the NCRI

The National Council of Resistance of Iran is a coalition of several Iranian opposition organizations and prominent personalities. During its plenary session in 1993, the NCRI elected Maryam Rajavi as its president-elect for the transitional period of transferring power to the Iranian people.

Key Initiatives

• Presented a ten-point plan for the future of Iran based on freedom, equality, separation of religion and state, and the abolition of the death penalty – 2006
• Declared the “Third Option: No to War, No to Appeasement, Yes to Democratic Change by the People of Iran” – European Parliament (2004, 2025)
• Introduced the “Plan for Freedoms and Women’s Rights in Tomorrow’s Free Iran” at the European Parliament – March 2010
• On February 28, 2026, the National Council of Resistance of Iran announced the “provisional government for the transition of sovereignty to the people of Iran and the establishment of a democratic republic based on Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan.”

International Campaigns and Advocacy

As the NCRI President-elect, Maryam Rajavi has mounted an extraordinary political, social, cultural, and ideological challenge to the ruling mullahs in Iran. Under her leadership, women have risen to hold pivotal positions in the Iranian Resistance. Over half of NCRI members are women. They have become a prominent voice in opposition to the ruling misogynous regime. This historical development can change the path of the Middle East.

Call for an Anti-Fundamentalism Front

In 1994, during a speech delivered at the Oslo city hall, Mrs. Rajavi warned about the octopus of religious tyranny and Islamic fundamentalism whose heart beats in Tehran. She said: “Fundamentalism has turned into the greatest threat to peace in the region and the world,” adding, “The mullahs ruling Iran are pursuing their expansionist agenda and exporting crises and tensions by exploiting the religious beliefs of over a billion Muslims.”

In a speech on the occasion of the International Women’s Day in March 2013 in Paris, Maryam Rajavi called for the creation of a front against fundamentalism: “The time has come for women to further expand the wide front against fundamentalism and the extensive front against religious dictatorship, on the international level for the liberation of the peoples of the region from the scourge of fundamentalism. We must expand our front against fundamentalism before the clerical regime can expand itself.”

Mobilization of Global Solidarity for the Iranian People’s Resistance

Today, in the eyes of the Iranian people, Maryam Rajavi is the pioneer of the struggle for democratic change in Iran. She has led a global movement comprised of some of the most celebrated political and social personalities, including former US government officials and secretaries in the political and military arenas and political dignitaries and parliamentarians from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. This international movement has attained significant victories in support of the Iranian Resistance and its organized wing at Ashraf 3. The campaign has gained international credibility and legitimacy by promoting the need for regime change and establishing freedom and democracy in Iran. It has also made considerable achievements in exposing the Iranian regime’s crimes against the people of Iran, its nuclear and missile programs, and its destructive activities to export terrorism and fundamentalism.

International Campaign to Delist the PMOI/MEK

Between 1997 and 2012, due to the appeasement of the clerical regime in Iran, governments accepted the regime’s request to list the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran as a terrorist organization and severely restricted its political activities.
In the eyes of the Iranian people, this was not just an action against a political organization. The designation was also against the Iranian people’s resistance for freedom and favored the mullahs’ regime.
Maryam Rajavi led a global campaign to remove the PMOI/MEK from terrorist lists in Europe and the US while exposing secret deals in the context of appeasing the clerical regime. These efforts led to the delisting of the PMOI/MEK in the United Kingdom in 2008 and the European Union in 2009, as well as the dismissal of terrorism charges in the June 17, 2003 dossier by a senior French Investigative Magistrate in May 2011, and the revocation of the PMOI/MEK’s terrorist designation in the United States in September 2012.

International Campaign in Defense of PMOI/MEK Members in Ashraf and Liberty

In 2009, the US government transferred the protection and security of over 3,000 PMOI/MEK members in Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government. On the orders of the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attacked Camp Ashraf in July 2009, April 2011, and again in September 2013. They killed over 100 residents and injured more than 1,000 in the process. Subsequently, the residents of Ashraf were transferred to Camp Liberty under the United Nations auspices. They were attacked several more times by missiles and rockets; dozens were killed, and many more were wounded. The objective of the clerical regime and its puppet government in Iraq was to eradicate all members of the Iranian Resistance.
Maryam Rajavi led an international campaign supporting the PMOI/MEK members in Ashraf and Liberty. The efforts included hundreds of statements issued by human rights organizations, numerous reports and statements by UN-affiliated organizations, and statements by thousands of parliamentarians worldwide, in addition to multiple resolutions passed in parliaments and international institutions. The US Congress adopted a resolution in 2015, calling for the security of PMOI/MEK members in Camp Liberty.
The relentless international and political campaigns completed the safe relocation of PMOI members from Iraq to Albania and other European countries on September 6, 2016, thus, foiling the Iranian regime’s schemes to eradicate the Mojahedin.

Movement Calling for Justice for Victims of the 1988 Massacre

In a call to the people of Iran and members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance, in August 2016, Maryam Rajavi announced the movement calling for justice for victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran. The movement’s demands included prosecution of all masterminds and perpetrators of the 1988 massacre, publication of the names, specifics, and places of burial of all massacre victims, and announcement of the identities of everyone involved in making decisions and executing the slaughter.
The Call for Justice movement rapidly grew both inside Iran and abroad. After 28 years, it turned the massacre of political prisoners into a top issue of debate in Iranian society vis-à-vis the clerical regime. The movement compelled the regime’s leaders to break their silence for over three decades and speak up about this major crime.
The families of victims embraced the call, and their efforts to publish the names of victims and the documents on this crime raised an extensive wave inside Iran.
On the international level, this resulted in numerous statements of condemnation, multiple meetings organized by the Iranian Resistance and legal experts, global denunciation of this heinous crime, and calls to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice. Specifically, in July 2024, Professor Javaid Rehman, then-UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, released a 66-page report describing the 1988 massacre as a crime against humanity and genocide.

Views

Women and the Struggle for Equality

The key to advancing and elevating the equality movement lies in aligning it with a progressive political movement. This is because true equality between men and women remains a hollow concept without women sharing in political power, holding positions in leadership and key societal decision-making, playing a substantial and equal role in economic management, and actively intervening in international politics. Authentic equality is only realized when women assume pivotal responsibilities at the very heart of the defining struggles of our time.

Women’s Leadership: The Experience of the Iranian Resistance

Our experience (within the resistance movement) has shown that breaking the spell of inequality is impossible without a quantum leap; we must, without hesitation, entrust leading positions of responsibility to the most competent women.

Advocating for Democratic Islam

Maryam Rajavi has delivered numerous speeches outlining the true message of Islam—one centered on tolerance and democracy, in stark contrast to reactionary and fundamentalist interpretations. She asserts that the pivotal dividing line between these two diametrically opposed visions of Islam is the status of women. Her published works include: “Islam, Women, and Equality,” “Women, the Force for Change,” “Women against Fundamentalism,” and “No to Compulsory Veil, No to Compulsory Religion, No to Compulsory Government.”

Separation of Religion and State

Today, our country and society needs to bring an end to tyranny under the guise of religion and establish a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state.

Equal Rights for Nationalities

The presence of oppressed nationalities constitutes a powerful and vital force for overthrowing the regime and achieving freedom; therefore, Iran’s multicultural and multilingual identity must be embraced and valued. This democratic alternative stands as the sole nationwide champion for our Baluch, Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen compatriots.

Abolition of the Death Penalty

For years, we have advocated for and insisted upon the total abolition of the death penalty. We call upon all our compatriots to wage the most widespread protests possible against this inhumane punishment.

International Conferences

Over the years, Maryam Rajavi has addressed hundreds of international conferences. She has been a guest of honor at numerous assemblies and has testified before congressional hearings in the United States and major conferences across Europe’s leading parliaments.

Diplomatic Meetings

Maryam Rajavi has met with a wide range of prominent political figures, including lawmakers, diplomats, heads of state, and human rights advocates from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

 

Books and Publications

These books present a compilation of some of Maryam Rajavi’s most important viewpoints on the future of Iran, women’s rights and freedoms, democratic Islam, the abolition of compulsory veiling and imposed religion, the roots of fundamentalism and the reasons for its expansion during the last quarter of the previous century, as well as the Iranian opposition’s deep commitment to human values and the capacity of Iranian society to bring about regime change and establish a free and advanced Iran.

These works demonstrate that the struggle of the Mojahedin and the National Council of Resistance against religious despotism is grounded in enduring principles and values that guarantee Iran’s freedom and independence, the democratic rights of the Iranian people, and tolerance in social relations.