"For us, democracy is not merely a political rhetoric, it’s an ideal for which 120,000 members of the Iranian Resistance have sacrificed their lives." – Zolal Habibi
NCRI – The spring edition of the Voices carried an article by Zolal Habibi from Virginia, the USA, on the situation in Iran and the way to achieve democratic changes in that country. The article follows:
Iran – A country where youth under the age of 30 form 70% of the population – a country where youth with PhD’s have no hope for finding a job – a country with one of the highest rates of "brain drain" at an average of 150,000 Iranian professionals leaving the country each year – a country where youth are looked upon as the enemy of the state.
Iran is described as a time bomb on the verge of explosion. An Iranian Resistance movement has spread fear among the clerical regime as young people have taken to the streets supporting strikes and protests across the country armed with hope for change. There have been 2,700 strikes and protests across Iran in the last seven months – the most recent strike being that of the transit drivers of Tehran.
But the price has been dear. Gallows are busy in cities and public hangings are on the rise. Nearly 200 people have been sentenced to death or have been executed since President Ahmadinejad took office last year. Over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, an unarmed man in his early 20’s was killed in broad daylight. His crime? Supposedly he was caught eating during fasting hours. On February 7th, 31 year old Hojjat Zamani (considered a hero for his acts of defiance against the government) was executed after four and a half years in prison.
Over the years hundreds of teenagers have been executed by the Iranian regime, some as young as 12 and 13 years old. According to the laws of the Iranian regime a girl can be sentenced to execution at age nine and a boy at the age of 15.
Iran needs the international community to help – and not in the way you would think. For the last two decades negotiations with the government officials and a policy of appeasement have only bought time for the regime to further its nuclear program. International efforts have ironically emboldened the Mullahs to suppress and execute innocent people. Iran’s medieval theocracy lacks the capacity to reform. The principle of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule) is the pillar of the constitution and it cannot be changed even through a referendum.
Military intervention is not the solution either. Iran is neither Afghanistan nor Iraq. It is not caught in a war between the West and Islam- rather it’s fighting an internal battle against a fundamentalist regime and the Iranian people do not want foreign intervention. For over 40 years the Iranian Resistance has paid a tremendous price in trying to establish democratic reforms. For us democracy is not merely political rhetoric, it’s an ideal for which 120,000 members of the Iranian resistance have sacrificed their lives.
As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President Elect of the National Council of Resistance has said, the people of Iran do not want money or weapons from the West. They want the concessions to the mullahs to stop and they want the international community to open its eyes to the systematic human rights abuses and terrorist crimes carried out by the regime. When the obstacles such as a policy of appeasement are removed, then the Iranian resistance will be able to bring about change.