{"id":347920,"date":"2026-09-09T17:19:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=347920"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:19:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:19:04","slug":"irans-opposition-elects-its-tenth-female-secretary-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/irans-opposition-elects-its-tenth-female-secretary-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Opposition Elects Its Tenth Female Secretary-General"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_347921\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-347921\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-347921\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026.jpg\" alt=\"Mahnaz Maimanat, newly elected Secretary-General of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), takes the oath of office at a formal gathering on 6 September 2026\" width=\"1000\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026-745x420.jpg 745w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026-150x85.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mek-secretary-general-mahnaz-maimanat-06092026-696x393.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-347921\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mahnaz Maimanat, newly elected Secretary-General of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), takes the oath of office at a formal gathering on 6 September 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The election of <a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/news\/mahnaz-maimanat-elected-secretary-general-of-the-pmoi-at-a-major-gathering-marking-the-start-of-the-organisations-62nd-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mahnaz Maimanat<\/a> to lead the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran highlights more than three decades of continuous female leadership within one of Iran\u2019s principal organised opposition movements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">An important development has taken place within the Iranian democratic opposition. On 6 September, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), the principal organised component of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), elected Mahnaz Maimanat as its new Secretary-General, at the beginning of the organisation\u2019s 62nd year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The election took place through three successive rounds involving PMOI members in seven countries \u2014 France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Albania. In the first round, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/why-tehran-is-so-hostile-to-a-woman-leading-its-organized-opposition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maimanat received 56%<\/a> of the votes, ahead of Badri Pourtabbakh and Narges Azdanlou. The position is for a two-year term and may be renewed by the PMOI\u2019s Central Council.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Born in Tehran in 1959, Maimanat has spent most of her adult life in the movement. She became acquainted with the PMOI as a university student and participated in demonstrations against the Shah\u2019s dictatorship. She joined the organisation following the 1979 revolution and went on to assume a succession of senior responsibilities: she became a member of the Executive Committee in 1989, the Leadership Council in 1993, the Central Council in 2014, and co-Secretary-General in 2021.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;The <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/IRGC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#IRGC<\/a> mouthpiece could simply have ignored an opposition leadership election held outside Iran. Instead, on September 7, it published an extended assault on Mahnaz Maimanat, her history, her family and, conspicuously, her relationship with <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/women?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#women<\/a> and girls,&quot; Farid Mahoutchi\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iran_policy\/status\/2097225276656652643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Her personal history also reflects the heavy price paid by many PMOI families under the clerical regime. Her mother, Akhtar Mowlavi, a teacher, was killed by the Revolutionary Guards in 1988. One of her brothers, Massoud, was executed in Evin Prison at the age of 19 after months of imprisonment and torture. Another brother, Mahmoud, an architecture student, was executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The significance of the election, however, goes well beyond a change of office-holder. Mahnaz Maimanat is the tenth woman to serve as Secretary-General of the PMOI. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maryam-rajavi.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryam Rajavi<\/a> became the first woman to hold the organisation\u2019s top leadership position in 1989, and for more than three decades every PMOI Secretary-General has been a woman. Eight women succeeded Mrs Rajavi before Maimanat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is particularly significant in the Iranian context. Within the PMOI, women\u2019s leadership is not simply a matter of ceremonial representation or political imagery. Its female Secretaries-General have exercised real executive and organizational authority, often during extraordinarily difficult periods involving clandestine activity inside Iran, severe repression, imprisonment and executions, attacks on PMOI members, displacement from Iraq and the subsequent rebuilding of the organization.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mahnaz Maimanat Elected as New Secretary General of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) <\/p>\n<p>After three rounds of voting across seven countries, PMOI members elected Mahnaz Maimanat to lead them for the next two years.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EugW3eZMup\">https:\/\/t.co\/EugW3eZMup<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XEw05rgcDk\">pic.twitter.com\/XEw05rgcDk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Women&#39;s Committee NCRI (@womenncri) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/womenncri\/status\/2097326609782997399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After assuming responsibility for leading the National Council of Resistance of Iran in 1993, Maryam Rajavi ceased to hold a formal organizational position within the PMOI. Nevertheless, she remains the most prominent political figure of the Iranian Resistance and, for many Iranians, particularly women, has become a symbol of resistance to religious fundamentalism and a pioneer of women\u2019s equality and political leadership.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This model of female leadership has also had important consequences inside Iran. Women have increasingly assumed leading responsibilities within the PMOI\u2019s underground <a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/pmoi-resistance-units\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Resistance Units<\/a>, which the movement says have played an active role in successive uprisings against the regime, including the nationwide protests of January 2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For young Iranian women confronting compulsory veiling, institutional discrimination and a political system that treats women as second-class citizens, the sight of women exercising genuine authority within an organized opposition movement carries considerable political and cultural significance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;The <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Mojahedineng?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Mojahedineng<\/a> is Iran&#39;s best-known organised resistance movement, operating an underground network of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/MEKResistanceUnits?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MEKResistanceUnits<\/a> inside the country while campaigning internationally for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and its replacement with a secular democratic state,&quot;\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iran_policy\/status\/2097352838800134591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It also helps explain the intensity of the attacks directed against the <a href=\"https:\/\/wncri.org\/category\/women-in-leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PMOI\u2019s leadership<\/a> by the Iranian regime and, increasingly, by hardline monarchist circles. Both have devoted considerable efforts to portraying the PMOI, and particularly its female leadership, as illegitimate. Yet the central issue is that the PMOI remains a highly organised democratic opposition movement with an extensive network inside Iran and therefore represents a serious challenge to the survival of the ruling theocracy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The election of its tenth female Secretary-General should therefore be viewed in a broader perspective. It represents more than three decades of continuous female leadership and constitutes a profound ideological and cultural challenge to Islamic fundamentalism: not simply women demanding equality, but women assuming responsibility, exercising authority and leading an organised struggle against a system built upon their discrimination and subordination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The election of Mahnaz Maimanat to lead the People&rsquo;s Mojahedin Organization of Iran highlights more than three decades of continuous female leadership within one of Iran&rsquo;s principal organised opposition movements. An important development has taken place within the Iranian democratic opposition. On 6 September, the People&rsquo;s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), the principal organised component [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":347921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[222],"class_list":["post-347920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran-resistance","tag-iranian-resistance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iran\u2019s Opposition Elects Its Tenth Female Secretary-General - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The election of Mahnaz Maimanat to lead the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran highlights more than three decades of continuous female leadership\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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