Conference at the French National Assembly features MPs, political dignitaries

Maryam Rajavi: The alternative is an Iran looking to the future

Honorable members of parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear Friends,
I am delighted to see you in the Colbert Room of the National Assembly.
I want to thank the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran, its president Cécile Rilhac, its vice-presidents André Chassaigne, Philippe Gosselin, Hervé Saulignac, Yannick Favenec, as well as all the members of the CPID for their precious support to the Iranian people and their democratic revolution for a free Iran.
The CPID did not wait for the uprising for the mullahs’ overthrow to denounce human rights violations in Iran, defend Iranian women, and support the Iranian Resistance.
The uprising started almost five months ago, and the Iranian people, especially the women, have impressed the world with their revolt and courage in the face of injustice, inequality, and discrimination. It is the courage of a determined youth in the face of death, arrests, and torture.

A firm decision to overthrow the mullahs

The Iranian people will continue to surprise and sweep away all the propaganda and myths about the regime’s stability and power. These people have demonstrated that their decision to topple the mullahs’ dictatorship is final.
Their struggle is rooted in more than 40 years of organized Resistance.
120,000 martyrs, including thousands of women and 30,000 political prisoners massacred in 1988, show that the Iranian people have never given in to this religious dictatorship. Generation after generation, the flame of Resistance continued to burn.

The revolution cannot be extinguished

Some are in a hurry to make people believe that repression can stifle the uprising. No, never!
Nothing will be the same as before, and Iran will not return to the past. Neither to the near past of a normalization of the mullahs’ dictatorship nor to the more distant past of the dictatorship of a shah.
The people of Iran have made it clear in their slogan, “We have not made sacrifices to bow down to a criminal leader,” and also, “Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the [mullahs’] leader.”
The alternative is an Iran that looks to the future.
After a century of suffering, the Iranian people no longer want dictatorships.
At the beginning of this new century, they want a democratic, modern, free republic, with the separation of religion and state, gender equality, no torture, no executions, no SAVAK (Shah’s secret police), no Basij militia and no Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
The time of a demagogue like Khomeini is over. He said in Neauphle-le-Château that we must be “all together” to hijack the Iranian people’s anti-Shah revolution and build a religious dictatorship to eliminate all the others.
For Khomeini, “all together” meant “all with me, otherwise you would be killed.”
The Iranian people will not let their revolution be stolen again by so-called opponents controlled by Tehran.
The regime’s overthrow, the establishment of a true republic, and the separation of religion and state are the NCRI’s basic principles proposed to all freedom-loving Iranians and all democratic forces.

A selfless force for regime change

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
The regime can no longer stop the uprising. It has no solution for social discontent.
Despite widespread arrests, the Resistance Units are taking considerable risks to keep the flame of Resistance burning. They convey the message of Resistance to cities and provinces across Iran.
The Resistance Units are a young and organized fighting force.
To make a revolution against the mullahs, you need a force that can sacrifice to overthrow the regime.
The regime has acknowledged that many of the leaders of the uprising who have been arrested are members of the Resistance Units.

In recent months, the regime’s media, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader and his president, the head of the Judiciary, the IRGC commander, and the speaker of the mullahs’ parliament (Majlis), who is a former revolutionary guard, have stepped up their attacks on the Iranian Resistance.
A few days ago, one of the regime’s experts wrote, “The (People’s Mojahedin) Organization should not be underestimated. They will be a more effective player than we expect… The doors are open for them to make new recruitments.” He added, “Whenever there was an unrest, their teams showed up.”
The dictatorship is worried about the young people supporting the Iranian Resistance.

PMOI is the regime’s red line

The clerical regime does not care to be viewed as a record holder of executions, torture, and misogyny by international opinion.
What is crucial for them is to censor the Iranian Resistance news because the PMOI is their red line.
Khatami’s foreign minister had clearly announced that the serious criterion for assessing the level of sincerity of European countries is their relations with the Iranian Resistance. This red line has been imposed on many media.

Media outlets that refuse to disseminate the news of the activities of the Iranian Resistance either want to travel to Iran or maintain their government’s relations with the mullahs.
The regime has never stopped its terrorism and demonization campaigns against the Iranian Resistance.
The regime also pursues an official and criminal policy of hostage-taking of foreign nationals to blackmail foreign governments.
It pursues the same blackmailing with Iranians abroad and holding their families and property hostage to force them to condemn or withdraw their support for the Iranian Resistance.

What do the people of Iran want from the French government?

We say that to stop these hostage-takings, one must not give in to blackmail.
If France wants to stand by the women and young people struggling in Iran, it must recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.
It must hold the regime’s leaders accountable, and above all, it must prioritize the terrorist designation of the IRGC by the European Union.
Wasting time will only allow the mullahs’ killing and war machines to roll.
French deputies can have an impact in advancing this goal. France, the country of Resistance and human rights, can play a leading role in this path to freedom.
I thank you all.