Maryam Rajavi Honors Executed PMOI Members at Paris Conference

Maryam Rajavi: The price paid for freedom and lasting peace in Iran and the Middle East

On Friday, April 10, a conference was held to honor executed PMOI members and courageous protesters, under the title: “A Call for Immediate Action to Halt the Executions of PMOI and dissident political prisoners, and courageous protesters.”
PMOI members at Ashraf-3 participated in the conference online.
A number of political figures also spoke at the event, including Ms. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, former German Minister of Justice; Franz Josef Jung, former German Federal Minister; John Bercow, the Rt Hon Speaker of the House of Commons, Jean-Pierre Spitzer, a prominent French lawyer; and Jean-François Legaret, head of the Femo Institute, along with several French mayors.
At the opening of the conference, Maryam Rajavi addressed the participants:

Distinguished guests,
Fellow citizens, driven to the brink by tyranny, repression, and war,
Political prisoners, heroes facing death sentences,
PMOI members at Ashraf-3,
I salute you all.
Members of the PMOI—Mohammad Taghavi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Abolhassan Montazar, and Vahid Bani Amerian—who at the time of execution stood at the pinnacle of resistance and bravery, and the seven young protesters—Saleh Mohammadi, Mehdi Ghassemi, Saeed Davoudi, Amirhossein Hatami, Mohammad Amin Biglari, Shahin Vahedparast, and Ali Fahim—who were put to death for the “crime” of resistance, are martyrs of peace and freedom.
By executing these heroes amid an external war, the regime has shown that it considers the arisen people and their organized resistance to be its true enemy.
A regime consumed by decay rushed to carry out these executions to protect its crumbling power from the uprisings that may follow the war. Yet these martyrs will only fuel the flames of future uprisings more than ever before.
Over the past 45 years, from Khomeini’s eight-year war with Iraq to the two recent wars, this freedom-seeking resistance has held firmly to the banner of peace and freedom, paying a heavy price in blood.
These martyrs are the price paid for Iran’s freedom and independence. Their pure blood has upended the calculations of the regime, the remnants of the monarchy, and the fabricated, anti-democratic alternatives aligned against the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance.
They are the price of an enduring peace that will one day extend over Iran and the entire Middle East region.
We rise and applaud these proud martyrs.

The Resistance That Raised the Banner of Peace and Freedom

During the January uprising, Khamenei ordered the killing of thousands of young people and teenagers simply for taking part in the protests, even displaying their lifeless bodies in black body bags on state television.
The people of Iran will decisively put an end to this sinister regime of black body bags, of gallows and executions, of war, destruction, poverty, and despair.
The resistance that has raised the banner of peace and freedom stands as a a worthy alternative and a force for change: an organized uprising, with its networks of resistance units and the Liberation Army.
Today, more clearly than ever, it has been proven that the solution lies neither in appeasement nor in war, but in the overthrow of the regime by the people and their organized resistance.
It has also become clear that the real war is between the people of Iran and religious tyranny.
This is why, even after so many executions, the regime’s judiciary chief has ordered judges to issue sentences more rapidly. At the same time, regime spokesmen warn of renewed resistance operations (i.e. Eternal Light II), openly revealing their fear of the consequences of peace and freedom, and their dread of the victory of a democratic revolution and a democratic republic.
On this basis, we welcomed the ceasefire, especially the halt to attacks on civilian infrastructure and facilities. We hope that the 15-day ceasefire, contrary to the wishes of remnants of both the old monarchy and the clerical regime, will lead to an end to the war and help pave the way for peace and freedom.
As the Iranian Resistance has emphasized for 45 years, lasting peace can only be achieved through the overthrow of this terrorist, warmongering dictatorship by the people of Iran and their organized resistance, and the establishment of a democratic republic.
I stress that ending executions in Iran, as a demand of the entire Iranian nation, must be included in any international agreement.
This is especially urgent as Khamenei’s son continues the daily execution of Iran’s youth to preserve the moribund regime’s grip on power, while absurdly claiming to command 17 million devoted supporters ready to sacrifice their lives.
If this claim were true, then as the Iranian Resistance has consistently declared, it should accept free elections for a constituent assembly or the presidency, under United Nations supervision, based on the principle of popular sovereignty, not clerical rule. We declared our readiness 30 years ago to participate in such elections, provided there were sufficient guarantees and UN oversight.
In 2014, in response to the regime’s claim that this resistance has no support inside Iran, I said: “Ensure the freedom and security of our members and supporters so they can hold a march in the streets of Tehran—then you will see how they sweep through your entire regime.”

The Generation of the Countless

From the very first days when the regime’s sham courts—trampling all principles of justice and international legal standards—began sentencing group after group of PMOI and other dissident prisoners to death, we consistently exposed these unjust rulings on the international stage.
In the French National Assembly, the European Parliament, at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, in Italy, Berlin, the Netherlands, and here as well, I repeatedly displayed the photographs of prisoners sentenced to death and warned that their lives were in danger. As I have said throughout all these years: as long as you fail to stand against this regime’s violations of the Iranian people’s human rights, you will never be able to stop its warmongering, its terrorism, or its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, our warnings fell on deaf ears. Silence and indifference prevailed, and worse still, even the regime’s crimes against members of this resistance were censored.
It was under such circumstances that these selfless fighters, these courageous young protesters, stood firm in defense of the Iranian people’s just cause. In the end, through their sacrifice and the shedding of their blood, they exposed and shattered that silence and censorship.
Salute to this countless generation, one that speaks to the regime only in the language of resistance and uprising.
Salute to the families of these martyrs, especially their steadfast and resilient mothers and fathers.
These brave women and men, during the imprisonment of their children, stood at the forefront of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign. After their children’s martyrdom, they will undoubtedly continue to raise the banner of honor and perseverance, becoming a source of strength and encouragement for their fellow citizens in this struggle.
Salute to them!
Over these years, the mullahs have resorted to every form of deception and manipulation to conceal one central reality: that a new generation of rising, defiant youth has joined the PMOI and the resistance units.
They have produced hundreds of TV series, films, and exhibitions to distance young people from the PMOI. They have published hundreds of books filled with lies and slander, along with thousands of fabricated news reports and articles, all aimed at discrediting the PMOI’s goals, ideals, history, and organization.
There has hardly been a rally or even one of their staged Friday prayers without chants of “death to the Mojahedin.”
Now, they see that their smear campaigns and toxic propaganda have failed because young people rising for the freedom of their society and country are finding what they seek within the PMOI.
From the very beginning of Khomeini’s rule until today, the clerical regime has clung to the illusion that it could eliminate the PMOI.
During the horrific mass executions of the early 1980s, they repeatedly claimed that the movement had been destroyed, that no one remained. In 1988, Khomeini carried out a genocide and massacre of imprisoned PMOI members and other dissidents, even writing in his own hand that they must be “quickly annihilated.”
At Ashraf-1 and Liberty, over a period of 14 years, Khamenei’s major project, which was carried out by his chief operative, Qassem Soleimani, was the destruction of the PMOI. They employed every inhumane method: medical blockades, psychological torture through relentless noise, assassinations, abductions, looting, and armed assaults with Humvees, blades, and axes.
April 8th marked the fifteenth anniversary of the massacre of 36 PMOI members in Ashraf, carried out in an attack by Khamenei’s puppet government in Iraq. Empty handed and unarmed PMOI members managed to halt those brutal assaults, but the pressure never ceased, continuing in the form of repeated attacks and missile strikes.
The aim was to eliminate a well-organized and experienced force near Iran’s borders that could, in coordination with popular uprisings, bring about the regime’s overthrow.
Yet the scenes of resistance and struggle by the residents of Ashraf, which were broadcast on the resistance satellite television, Simaye Azadi, ignited waves of inspiration, pride, anger, and support, in cities and even inside prisons.
Contrary to what the regime intended, freedom-loving men and women joined—and continue to join—this movement, drawing powerful lessons from the courage and sacrifices of these fighters. This is precisely what makes the regime tremble.
In recent days, the deeply moving ceremonies held by the PMOI in Ashraf-3 for each of these fallen heroes have been so inspiring that they have resonated widely across cities in Iran. Many have said how proud they are that the PMOI has become their voice.
Now the regime sees resistance units and units of the Liberation Army standing firm against them across all provinces. They see that from battlefields to protest squares, from prisons and torture chambers to the gallows, PMOI members and brave young people continue to rise in the struggle to overthrow the regime.
When a generation has come to believe in the path, principles, and ideals of this movement, when it no longer fears arrest, torture, or execution in advancing the struggle, and when the network of resistance units and the Liberation Army has spread from Tehran and Karaj to Qom, Mashhad, Ahwaz, Zahedan, and Sanandaj, it means that a nationwide resistance has reached the strength and capacity to overthrow this regime, and it will do so.
The roar of explosions during the assault by Liberation Army units on Khamenei’s headquarters, echoing from the heart of Tehran from dawn on February 23 until midday, resounded like a march of victory.
Of the 250 brave fighters who took part in that operation, around 100 were either killed or captured.
Truly, this generation of hundreds of thousands, of countless numbers, the generation of Massoud Rajavi, grows larger, more determined, and more battle-hardened as conditions become harsher. It stands ever more ready to fight, to wage the struggle with even greater intensity, and to pay the highest price and become more prepared.
It is the same generation that Massoud, with passion and deep compassion, described in his message about those fallen martyrs: Examples of a rising and flourishing generation, opposed to both dictatorship and dependence, against both clerical and monarchical rule, taking up arms with fire in their hearts, smiling even at the gallows, and longing to behold their ideal.

An Indomitable Force at the Heart of the People

The PMOI members who have been executed in recent months (from Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani last July to these thirteen heroes) bear witness to the rise of a new generation of revolutionary fighters in Iran.
Listen to their words—each one a declaration of war against a world of oppression, repression, and injustice:
Akbar Daneshvar-Kar said: “The banner once held by Mohammad Hanifnejad is now in my hands.”
Pouya Ghabadi said: “I will go to the gallows firm and unshaken.”
Babak Alipour said: “I call for a struggle a hundred times greater against the regime of Velayat-e Faqih.”
Abolhassan Montazar said: “My greatest wish is to remain a Mojahed, to fight like a Mojahed, and to die like a Mojahed—for this is the path to salvation.”
And Vahid Bani-Amerian—whom his fellow citizens in Sonqor have rightly called a son of Iran—said: “Blessed is the fight and the sacrifice of one’s life for the ideal of a just society.”
Each of these statements is a distillation of faith, passion, and awareness.
Even the regime’s judiciary, in a cowardly admission, acknowledged that the heroic protester Amir Hassan Hatami looked his interrogators and torturers in the eye and declared that he sought the overthrow of the regime and had taken up the struggle to disarm its repressive forces.
Consider this: they spoke these words at a time when they knew, without the slightest doubt, that the gallows awaited them. Yet they embraced this fate with open eyes.
You saw how the courageous Mojahed Mohammad Taqavi told the regime’s executioners: “Even if you release me today, I will once again join the PMOI.”
I raised their photographs at a conference protesting the death sentences of Mohammad Taghavi and his fellow prisoners. Mohammad wrote to me, asking why my face had looked sorrowful as I held up their images. He wrote: “My greatest salvation is to take each step of my life at the height of commitment to the liberation of my people—to move forward with unparalleled readiness toward the gallows, and to remain steadfast until the very last moment.”
This was the message I received from all of them, each time I spoke their names or showed their photographs.
Such humility, sense of responsibility, and courage were the result of a profound choice—one they reached after passing through many trials and hardships.
Over these past years, whenever they were summoned for trial, retrial, or taken into solitary confinement, I felt as though I was with them every moment.
And still, I saw that as the pressure intensified, they became more resilient, more steadfast, more determined, and more combative, sending out messages of perseverance and victory.
From behind prison bars, holding up handwritten messages during visits, they made their presence known, raising their hands in the sign of victory, full of energy and spirit.
Then came the flood of their letters and declarations, pledging repeatedly to bring the enemy to defeat and disgrace.
As I heard, in their final farewells to their fellow prisoners, they gave comfort to everyone—urging patience and perseverance, saying: “Why are you distressed? We are going to join our other comrades. We must not give the enemy cause for satisfaction.”
“We have chosen to stand to the very end, and we take pride in that choice. And it is clear that in doing so, we have disheartened and defeated the enemy.”
These six proud fighters passed through a harsh landscape of demonization, lies, and slander. They turned their backs on every temptation that called them to avoid struggle or to escape the cost of resistance.
They gave up their jobs, their lives, their families, and ultimately their lives themselves. That is the secret of their endurance.
Yes, a people who carry such an indomitable force within their hearts have already gained the power to defeat their enemy.
Salute to the PMOI and other political prisoners who for more than two years have courageously carried forward the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign.
Salute to those under sentence of death, whose steadfastness inspires Iran’s youth to rise and fight.
And salute to the martyrs whose sacrifice inspires the great uprising yet to come.
Salute to the martyrs.
Long live freedom.