![\"iran-albania-mek-anniversary2022-ashraf3\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/iran-albania-mek-anniversary2022-ashraf3.jpg\" "\\"iran-albania-mek-anniversary2022-ashraf3\\"")
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On Tuesday, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization<\/a> of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) marked the 57th<\/sup> anniversary of the official date of its founding. The occasion provided members and supporters with an opportunity to celebrate the regime\u2019s longstanding survival in the face of violent repression, first by the Shah\u2019s dictatorship and then by the mullahs\u2019 theocracy. But the MEK has done much more than survive while continually promoting a democratic alternative to both repressive systems. In recent years, it has very clearly become the prime source of hope for the freedom of the Iranian people, as well as the primary driver of popular uprisings that aim to facilitate regime change.<\/p>\n Since the end of 2017, there have been at least nine such uprisings, plus countless other protests and acts of civil disobedience. The first of the uprisings spanned much of January 2018<\/a> and encompassed well over 100 cities and towns, featuring provocative slogans like \u201cdeath to the dictator\u201d. In the face of such direct and widespread challenges to his own hold on power, the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responded by undermining his own regime\u2019s propaganda to acknowledge that the MEK had played a leading role in the unrest and had \u201cplanned for months\u201d to facilitate it.<\/p>\n Khamenei\u2019s tacit acknowledgment of the MEK\u2019s popularity prompted<\/a> an upsurge of indiscriminate repression, which reached new heights in November 2019 at the time of another nationwide uprising, this one nearly twice as large as its predecessor. With crowds of protesters assembled in nearly 200 localities, security forces opened fire on many of them, killing around 1,500 before arresting thousands of others. The Iranian judiciary, then under the control of the man who would go on to be appointed president in June 2021, subjected many of those arrestees to systematic torture over the course of several months.<\/p>\n These actions affected Iranians from all walks of life and only helped to reinforce the sense of identity between the general public and the MEK\u2019s dedicated activists<\/a>. Those activists, formally known as \u201cResistance Units\u201d, continued to encourage the Iranian people\u2019s defiance in the face of mounting repression and ultimately succeeded in limiting voter turnout for the sham presidential election to around ten percent of the population. Soon thereafter, the Resistance Units expanded their strategies for reaching the public, taking over state media broadcast signals, public address systems, and government websites on several occasions in 2022.<\/p>\n Politicians, legislators, activists and religious leaders across the world acknowledge that #Iran<\/a>'s regime is a threat to its people and the entire world. They also recognize the MEK as the alternative that can establish freedom in Iran.#WeSupportMEK<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/wSqIypmDvz<\/a><\/p>\n — People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 6, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n