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HomeStatementsStatements: Iran Resistance‘Maryam Rajavi, Iran’s President-in-exile’: Al-Jazeera

‘Maryam Rajavi, Iran’s President-in-exile’: Al-Jazeera

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Al-Jazeera website has published a report about the viewpoints and political activities of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Arabic language Al-Jazeera website introduces Mrs. Maryam Rajavi as an “Iranian leader that has struggled against the two regimes of the Shah and Khomeini, and leads the People’s Mojahedin organization [PMOI/MEK]. The parliament-in-exile [National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)] elected her as Iran’s President in 1993. She emphasizes that democracy and respect for freedoms must be established in Iran after the velayat-e faqih [clerical] rule.”

Maryam Rajavi, 61, was born in Tehran and graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran with a BS in Metallurgy.

Mrs. Rajavi was involved in student movements against the Shah’s regime from 1973 to 1978, the Doha-based network reported. She was a senior official of the MEK’s Social Department from 1979 to 1981, and was named a parliamentary candidate by the group in the first elections after the revolution.

“She considers Islam as a ‘democratic and dynamic ideology’ and says this viewpoint of the religion guarantees the establishment of democracy and freedom in Iran. She explains that the pillars of a realistic understanding of Islam lie in the values of ‘sacrifice’ and ‘honesty’, and without these two, cruelty cannot be eradicated”, Al-Jazeera said in a report on its website on June 17.

“Rajavi was involved in directing the PMOI [MEK] Secretariat from 1985 to 1989, and was elected as the PMOI Secretary General in 1989 until 1993.”

After her election as President-elect of the NCRI, Mrs. Rajavi “took part in many international events and met with numerous senior foreign leaders. She introduced the ‘Third Option’ to the West in confronting Iran. This solution is for change to be brought about at the hands of the Iranian people. She emphasized that this is the ‘only solution to prevent a foreign war’.”

Maryam Rajavi says women are playing a significant role in overthrowing the velayat-e faqih regime, adding that more than half of the NCRI’s members are women, the report says.
“She summarizes in a number of articles her vision for Iran after the fall of the velayat-e faqih regime, including respect for freedom of choice, the legitimacy of the ballot-box and guaranteeing fundamental freedoms, abolition of the death penalty, separation of church and state, complete gender equality, an independent judicial system, freedom of expression, and a non-nuclear Iran.”

“On June 13, 2015 in Paris she said the Iranian regime is the main source of the constant threat of terrorism in the Middle East and is involved in three wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen aimed at increasing its influence and strategic depth.”

She described the Arab coalition action in Yemen “as a signal of firmness and a solution vis-à-vis the Iranian regime’s avidity, and she called for this policy to continue across the region.”

“Rajavi also said that the overthrow of the ‘mullahs’ regime’ in Iran first requires assistance for Syrians to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime, the arming of [Sunni] tribes and marginalized parties in Iraq, the participation of all Iraqis in the political process, and support for the ‘Iranian Resistance’.”