May this year be a year in which you teach the children of Iran that they have to take the risk and pay the price for achieving freedom and that they must not believe the superstition that advocates passivism and continued suffering to avoid paying the price. And may this season, which you have defined as the spring of knowledge, would be transformed into the spring of freedom.

MARYAM RAJAVI’S MESSAGE ON THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR IN IRAN

Honorable teachers and professors of Iran,
On the beginning of the New Academic Year, I salute you. I wish you a year filled with academic and scientific successes. I also hope that the new school year would be a year of advancement and uprising to topple the ruling religious dictatorship and achieve freedom.

Under the mullahs’ brutal tyrannical rule where the talents of Iran’s younger generations and the efficiency and sense of responsibility of teachers and professors are fettered by repression and discrimination, the first lesson is the lesson of freedom.

I hail our country’s honorable teachers and their associations in all cities and provinces and congratulate them in advance on the World’s Teachers Day on October 5.

May this year be a year in which you teach your students the lesson of resilience and freedom more than ever before, the lesson of seeking and finding newness, the lesson of the little black fish who swam against the flow of water and did not give in to the prevalent coercions, lies and discriminations.

Iranian porters in West of the country are the targets of arbitrary killings by the Iranian border guards

A study of the arbitrary killing of porters in western Iran

Iran HRM, September 18, 2017 - Every year, hundreds of unarmed porters are killed or injured by Iranian security forces near the western borders of Iran mainly in the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan and Kermanshah. 

The killing of porters has dramatically increased in recent months. At least 16 back carriers and petty tradesmen have been killed and 12 wounded only during the months of July and August. This is while 49 got killed and 47 wounded throughout 2016, meaning an average of four porters killed per month.

Killing of porters, as the poorest people who have to resort to this type of hard work to make ends meet for their families, has sparked a wave of outrage among the public.

In protest to these killings by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the State Security forces, demonstrations broke out in the western city of Baneh. A large number of residents gathered outside the Governor’s Office on Tuesday, September 5, demanding an end to the ongoing attacks against the porters.

I would like to congratulate all of you on your election of my dear sister, Zahra Merrikhi, whom you chose unanimously in the final phase of your election process, as the Secretary General of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.

Maryam Rajavi’s remarks at the assembly of the PMOI on its 52nd anniversary

With this choice, you have presented the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance, in general, with an important gift, which will boost the organization enormously and propel our movement forward politically and organizationally.

I could see with my own eyes that the Mojahedin (PMOI members) have become prolific. I saw a long line of those who could serve as Secretary General. And I saw how, with utmost knowledge and responsibility toward achieving your goal, you reached such unanimity.

I witnessed the glorious moments when your sisters --whom you had nominated as candidates—spoke with one heart, in unity. I felt great pride.

 I heard you speak and I greatly admired your sincerity and awareness, and the consensus you have in the principles and values by which you live. I could sense the truthfulness in each and every one of you, in your votes, and in your eyes when you spoke of the advancements of the PMOI. And I was truly pleased and honored.

Dear sisters and brothers, Another issue I would like to address is the link and relationship between the September 1st massacre in Ashraf and the nuclear talks. In fact, the mass executions of Mojahedin in Ashraf on September 1, 2013 was the hidden half of the regime’s retreat in the nuclear talks and the JCPOA. On November 24, 2013, the Iranian regime’s representatives engaged in the nuclear talks in Geneva, signed an agreement. Before the start of these talks, in September 2013, Khamenei took action through his puppet, former Iraqi prime minister Maliki, and committed the massacre in Ashraf.

The massacre in Ashraf is a chapter directly tied to the Resistance, freedom and human rights in Iran
August 30, 2017

Among these martyrs were also pioneers from Iran’s younger generation:
Rahman Mannani, Amir Nazari, Saeed Akhavan, Nasser Habashi, and Yasser Hajian. These were pioneers for the younger generation of Iranians. Selfless and knowledgeable freedom fighters who chose to fight on the frontlines equipped with full sincerity and honesty.

Nor will we ever forget the seven residents of Ashraf who were taken hostage. The government of Iraq never informed us of their fates. Unfortunately, the UN, US, EU and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees did not compel the puppet government of Iraq at the time to hold itself accountable for this abduction.

The mullahs and their puppet, former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, were complicit in this kidnapping, but have cowardly refused to claim responsibility.
But we will not forget or relent until we take the mullahs’ religious tyranny and their agents and mercenaries in Iraq to the courts to face justice.

Some human epics need the passage of time to reveal their true message. But there are also epics that immediately inspire action and regenerate themselves. The Epic of Ashraf was one such example because it immediately created a large impact led by the perseverance of the 42 brave surviving PMOI members.
You were witnesses to the scenes of the massacre. 

You emerged from that battle, eager to fight on under the command of Maryam Akbari in those moments of life and death. Indeed, she fulfilled her historic duty in the best way possible. At the time, you were not just 42 individuals, but representatives of an enchained nation that wishes to bring down the mullahs’ tyrannical regime. You lived to fight the murderers.

Maryam Rajavi vowed to carry on the struggle of the martyrs of 1988 who stood by their ideals to final fruition. She said: We vow to turn every drop of your unjustly-shed blood, into a force for struggle and battle for freedom. And we vow to carry on your glorious ideal to final victory.

COMMEMORATING THE HEROES MARTYRED IN THE 1988 MASSACRE IN IRAN

Ms. Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and President of Robert Kennedy Human Rights Foundation; Mr. Mariano Rabino, member of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees of the Parliament of Italy; Senator Pietro Liuzzi, member of Cultural and EU Policy committees of the Italian Senate; Ms.

 Ingrid Betancourt, former Senator from Columbia, and Tahar Boumedra, former director of the Human Rights Office of UNAMI attended and addressed the ceremony.

Maryam Rajavi made a speech at this gathering. At the end of the ceremony, she laid a flower wreath at the monument commemorating the victims of the 1988 massacre and paid them respects.

In brief remarks addressed to the 30,000 proud martyrs, massacred in 1988, Maryam Rajavi said:
We are commemorating the memory of martyrs of the 1988 massacre, along with PMOI members who are continuing your path. Generation after generation, people asked about your stories and headed for your glorious destination.

 Although Khomeini sought to send you into oblivion, you have become eternal; you have turned into the rebellious conscience of the Iranian people. Khomeini was defeated by your perseverance and resorted to massacre.

August 2017 Conference Commemorates 1988 massacre of Iranian political p...

Maryam Rajavi vowed to carry on the struggle of the martyrs of 1988 who stood by their ideals to final fruition. She said: We vow to turn every drop of your unjustly-shed blood, into a force for struggle and battle for freedom. And we vow to carry on your glorious ideal to final victor

COMMEMORATING THE HEROES MARTYRED IN THE 1988 MASSACRE IN IRAN

Ms. Kerry Kennedy, daughter of the late Senator Robert Kennedy and President of Robert Kennedy Human Rights Foundation; Mr. Mariano Rabino, member of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees of the Parliament of Italy; Senator Pietro Liuzzi, member of Cultural and EU Policy committees of the Italian Senate; Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, former Senator from Columbia, and Tahar Boumedra, former director of the Human Rights Office of UNAMI attended and addressed the ceremony.

Maryam Rajavi made a speech at this gathering. At the end of the ceremony, she laid a flower wreath at the monument commemorating the victims of the 1988 massacre and paid them respects.
In brief remarks addressed to the 30,000 proud martyrs, massacred in 1988, Maryam Rajavi said:

We are commemorating the memory of martyrs of the 1988 massacre, along with PMOI members who are continuing your path. Generation after generation, people asked about your stories and headed for your glorious destination. Although Khomeini sought to send you into oblivion, you have become eternal; you have turned into the rebellious conscience of the Iranian people. Khomeini was defeated by your perseverance and resorted to massacre.