Struan Stevenson is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association and a lecturer on Middle East policy. He has served as a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14).

Blacklisting Iran's IRGC does not mean another U.S.-led war

The IRGC and the Quds Force, their organization responsible for extraterritorial operations, are behind most of the brutal Shi'ite militias rampaging through the predominantly Sunni provinces of Iraq, massacring families and leveling cities in the name of the war against the Islamic State. It is a great irony that Iran exploited the IS campaign as an opportunity to carry out their genocidal crusade against the Sunnis, at the same time fooling former U.S. President Barack Obama into regarding Iran as an ally, even coaxing the United States into providing vital air support. There are even disturbing reports that the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units, dubbed as Iraq's version of the IRGC, have been surreptitiously providing arms to IS.

Over the past six years, the world has witnessed in horror how the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has massacred his own people, while enjoying unlimited financial and military support from Iran. It was the Iranian re

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Iran is a country where women are living under one of the most oppressive conditions.

Maryam Rajavi's Message to The "Women Force for Change" Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden

The International Women's Day reminds us of a glorious future promised to mankind by women's equality movement and at the same time, it underlines the ongoing inequalities, violence and exploitation of women in our world.

 Iran is a country where women are living under one of the most oppressive conditions.

The mullahs' systematic suppression of women initially started under the pretext of Islam and they took advantage of religion to impose a wide range of restrictions on and discriminations against women such as the obligation to wear the mandatory veil.

The Civil Code was drafted on the basis of discrimination against women, and the Penal Code considers women's worth half of men's.
According to the mullahs' Sharia law, many activities of women including ownership, travel, leaving home, education, and employment are contingent on the decisions and desires of men.
Based on the mullahs' repressive and misogynist laws, girls as young as 13 and sometimes as young as 9 can get married and even punished.
The mullahs have spread the male-dominated culture with decadent customs like polygamy, temporary marriages, and sanctioning of honor killings.
The mullahs have deprived girls from studying in dozens of fields of higher education. Women's participation in the job market is only 14 per cent.
The women of Iran started their struggle 150 years ago. They have been in the frontline of the struggle agains
t the mullahs' religious dictatorship and comprise its pivotal force. Tens of thousands of women have been tortured or executed since the Iranian people's 1979 revolution against the Shah's dictatorship was usurped by the repressive mulla

Iran: Human Rights Organisations Demand Justice for 1988 Massacre

A joint statement has been sent to the current session of the Human Rights Council by six human rights organisations regarding justice for the summer of 1988 massacre of political prisoners by the Iranian regime.

During that summer, more than 30,000 political prisoners (most of whom were members or activists of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – PMOI / MEK, were killed by the Iranian regime on the orders of the then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini who had issued a fatwa.
The statement was entitled “The 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran constitutes a crime against humanity” and was submitted by the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, a non-governmental organization in general consultative status, Women’s Human Rights International Association, Edmund Rice International Limited, France Libertes : Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, International Educational Development, Inc., Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples, non-governmental organizations on the roster.
It started with a history of the 1988 massacre and mentioned the evidence against the perpetrators – a voice recording of the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri condemning the “death committee” for its participation in the executions.
The fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini issued was quoted: “As the treacherous Monafeqin (PMOI) do not believe in Islam and what they say is out of deception and hypocrisy, and as their leaders have admitted that they have become renegades, and as they are waging war on God, … it is decreed that those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the Monafeqin (PMOI), are waging war on God and are condemned to execution. In Tehran, Mr. HojatolIslam Nayyeri, Sharia judge, and Mr. Eshraqi (Tehran’s prosecutor) and a representative of the Intelligence Ministry will decide on the fate with a majority vote. In prisons located in provincial capitals the Sharia judge, revolutionary prosecutor, and member of the intelligence ministry will be making the ruling. Those responsible for the rulings should not be hesitant or doubtful and should be most ferocious in the face of infidels. (…) In all the above cases, if the person at any stage or at any time maintains their support for the hypocrites (PMOI), the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately. As regards to the cases, use whichever criterion that speeds up the implementation of the verdict.”
The report mentioned how many of the people who were executed had completed their sentences in full or were re-arrested just to be executed.

Six human rights organisations with consultative status to the United Nations human rights body have submitted a joint written statement to the current session of the Human Rights Council about the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran and the need for the international community to hold the perpetrators to account.

Human Rights NGOs Joint Statement on Iran 1988 Massacre

The massacre was carried out on the basis of a fatwa by the regime’s then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
The joint written statement is titled: “The 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran constitutes a crime against humanity”.

Click here to read the Joint written statement submitted by the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, a non-governmental organization in general consultative status, Women’s Human Rights International Association, Edmund Rice International Limited, France Libertes : Fondation Danielle Mitterrand, non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, International Educational Development, Inc., Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples, non-governmental organizations on the roster.

The text of the joint written statement:
The 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran constitutes a crime against humanity*
On November 27, 2016 a Special Clerical Court in the Iranian city of Qom sentenced Ahmad Montazeri, son of the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, to 21 

years imprisonment and to be stripped of any clerical authority for releasing a tape that captures his father denouncing the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

“WOMEN THE FORCE FOR CHANGE” ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 28 FEBRUARY 2017

Maryam Rajavi's speech for Women's Day on 8 March

Under the clerical rule, women are systematically suppressed.
On average 2000 women are arrested daily for not observing the forced dress code.
According to the law, women must obey their husbands; they are deprived of the right to divorce.
If they get divorced, they are deprived of the care of their children.
When it comes to the regime’s Penal Code: women's rights is half of men's.
Although women make up a large work-force, they only take 14 percent of the job market.
In September 2016 the mullahs' supreme leader- Khamenei in a declaration announced that women's role is being a mother and a housewife while men's role is fatherhood and economic.
He also called for enforced government policies to increase birth rate.
In fact, by repressing women, the mullahs enslave the whole society.
On the other hand, however, Iranian women play a significant role in the Iranian people’s resistance against this religious tyranny.
Tens of thousands of women were tortured or executed in the struggle for freedom, democracy and equality against religious dictatorship

They have abandoned Iranian people who fight the godfather of Islamic fundamentalism.
Visits to Iran under the mullahs' rule, and silence on the violations of human rights, mass executions and systematic abuse of women's rights is legitimizing human rights violations in Iran.
Western governments must not turn a blind eye on the fact that the mullahs active support for fundamentalism has paved the way, ideologically and politically, for the emergence of Daesh.

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Ingrid Betancourt: Thank Albania

Ingrid Betancourt, politicians and activist of human rights

Albania, Feb. 27, 2017 - There are two reasons that Ingrid Betancourt, politician and activist for human rights brought in Tirana. To say thank you for the hospitality of our country to bring more than 2 thousand Iranian Mujahedin to this country, while others are expected to come, and to meet them, some of whom are her friends.

One of the most popular personalities in the world, aimed to be the first woman president in Colombia, but became the first woman who was kidnapped for six years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces, sees Albania with admiration in her engagement to house refugees.

Ingrid Betancourt, politicians and activists of human rights: I feel honored to be here. Governments and different political parties were the first who welcomed the Iranian refugees when they were being persecuted and were persecuted

. Albania has become known internationally as an example for human rights.

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Trump Starts to Put the Squeeze on Iran’s International Terror Operations Irans terror network operates both in the Middle East and way beyond

Iran has been politically or militarily active across the globe—including each of the six other states covered by the disputed U.S. travel ban.

MATTHEW RJ BRODSKY
The Daily Beast, Feb. 23, 2017 - ... While terrorist-sponsoring states and organizations wishing to harm Americans may disproportionately come from the Middle East, they often rely on corrupt states and officials outside the region to finance their actions through a range of illicit activities.

 Lost in the highly politicized immigration debate is the nexus between America’s adversaries, such as Iran and Hezbollah, and their shady terrorist-financing networks that span the globe.

 Those financial tentacles reach into South America and even the United States, pointing to the need for us to guard against would-be terrorists reaching the homeland, and the necessity to further rein in our adversaries by punishing their pocketbooks.