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Iran-Women: Mrs. Rajavi urged New York conference to defend Iranian women’s rights

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of IranNCRI – In a message to women’s conference in New York today, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said: “Women in Ashraf, who are carrying out the burden of a complex, painful and difficult struggle against the most misogynist, reactionary force of history, must be supported by their sisters across the world.” Camp Ashraf in Iraq is where members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the main Iranian opposition, reside. While they are being recognized as protected persons under the Geneva Fourth Convention, they are a target of the clerical regime’s terrorist conspiracies in Iraq. The following is the full text of Mrs. Rajavi’s message to the conference:
In offering my warmest greetings, I laud your fruitful gathering and your efforts in the cause of gender equality.
Your gathering today is dealing with a critical issue as it addresses the clearest objective and the most urgent duty in the equality movement, namely, defending the women in Ashraf City. For the most active and pioneering women’s movement and the most tortuous struggle for liberation, peace, freedom and democracy are today reflected in Ashraf City and in the resistance of women there.
In the distant past, there were few if any women ready and willing to wage a selfless struggle and hoist the flag of a campaign for liberation and equality. Today, however, there are thousands of courageous, selfless women who are leading a progressive movement that represents noble ideals and is the epicenter of the confrontation against the theocracy ruling Iran and the fundamentalists it supports around the globe.
In this daunting campaign, these women have
–    created a new culture by breaking the myth of not believing in themselves, as well as the myth of historical inability and weakness of women;
–    brought to fruition many mottos and ideals of the equality movement;
–    taken charge of the most crucial leadership positions in the resistance movement. Ashraf City, which stood resolute in the face of major conspiracies was commanded by heroic women such as Mojgan Parsai and Sedigheh Hosseini (past and present PMOI Secretary Generals) and a generation of other responsible women;
–    assumed this responsibility at the most crucial times, for they have constantly been subjected to the mullahs’ conspiracies and pressures. The devastating bombing of Ashraf City by the US and the United Kingdom at the behest of the mullahs, Tehran’s plots to have members of this movement expelled from Iraq or extradited – unrelenting to the day -, the encirclement of Ashraf City and the denial of food and medicine for those staying there, and an assortment of security perils in the heart of a country engulfed in bombing and the fire of war, are all part of these pressure that are being exerted in the context of a massive psychological warfare and a campaign of demonization by the clerical regime. Nevertheless, the proud women of Ashraf have remained steadfast amidst such grave dangers.
These women are not merely engaged in a normal, albeit difficult and intense, struggle. They are fighting on the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism. They are struggling against a hydra that has arisen from the Middle Ages and seeks to take the world back to the Dark Ages.
The vanguard women of Ashraf have not attained this position easily. They have forsaken their careers and family life, devoting their entire abilities, energies and compassion to this cause. Tens of thousands of patient, aware and brave women were tortured or sent to the gallows in order for Iranian women to conquer the zenith of liberation and open the path to freedom and democracy in Iran.
The heroic women of Ashraf are the pivotal force in a political alternative in the face of the ruling religious dictatorship. In its platform, this alternative seeks complete gender equality in all political, social and economic arenas. It rejects any compulsion and imposition in women’s clothing, education, occupation, marriage and divorce. It has also banned any exploitation of women under whatever pretext.
The Mojahed women of Ashraf are the true face of the democratic and tolerant Islam and have defeated the backwardness, violence and misogyny that Islamic fundamentalists have put forth.
They are not only the most effective model and inspiration for the liberation of women in Iran and the region, but by virtue of combating misogyny, the bedrock of the fundamentalists’ reactionary mindset, they have found the proper way to defeat them.
Dear Friends,
Women in Ashraf, who are carrying out the burden of a complex, painful and difficult struggle against the most misogynist, reactionary force of history, must be supported by their sisters across the world.
In the name of the equality movement, I ask for your support to save the women in my homeland, who are ruthlessly flogged, hanged and stoned to death. I also ask for your support in the confrontation with the ogre of Islamic fundamentalism whose evil shadow has thrown the life and destiny of everyone in the region, especially women, into darkness.
I urge each and every one of you to rise and defend the heroic women of Ashraf.
I thank you all.