A week of solidarity with women in Ashraf and uprising in Iran

Honorable guests, My dear sisters,

I salute Ashraf’s martyrs, the latest one of whom was the valiant and honorable Shaaban Souri who joined the other martyrs.

And I salute the martyrs of the uprising for freedom in Iran.
We have gathered here to commemorate a week of solidarity with the women of Ashraf and Iran, and to invite public opinion and international organizations, especially our sisters around the world, to confront the criminal threats posed by the religious fascism in Iran and its cohorts against the lives and dignity of women in Camp Ashraf.

We have gathered here to echo the Iranian people’s vehement rejection of the despicable abuses carried out by Khamenei’s henchmen against imprisoned girls and boys, especially the inhuman duress imposed on women in Ward 209 of Evin prison.

We are also gathered here to underscore to governments which refuse to refrain from appeasing and negotiating with this regime of aggression, lies, and killings that shame on you.

Dear Friends,
You are all aware of the criminal attack carried out by Nouri Maliki’s forces against Ashraf, which took place according to the dictates and orders of Khamenei.

The attack was coordinated by the terrorist Qods Force and the Iranian regime’s embassy in Baghdad. Its timing was designed to coincide with Khamenei’s endorsement of Ahmadinejad as president in order to weaken the Iranian people’s uprising.

The result of the attack has been 10 martyrs, 500 wounded and 36 hostages.

The pictures and video footage of the attack partially reflect the brutal violence used during the attack.

I say partially because the events of July 28th and 29th were much more atrocious than what could be reflected in the pictures.

Today, I want to particularly highlight the savage treatment of my daughters in Ashraf by the medieval belligerent forces. They threatened women extensively with humiliation and sexual abuse. Using the most shameful threats they attempted to terrify these women, and even warned that they will massacre all the men in Ashraf so they could later invade the residence of the women.

Such intimidation was done by criminals who were dispatched to Ashraf either directly by the Iranian regime or otherwise affiliated with the ruling mullahs in Tehran. Their breed of hooligans have for years resorted to reprehensible sexual violence against women across Iran which is the last weapon in their arsenal.

These days the same criminals are pressuring dedicated and brave women being held in Evin prison’s Ward 209. They are telling them that they will make a lesson of them so that other women would never again dare to participate in the uprising.

Recently, the regime’s former Majlis (parliament) speaker revealed that detained girls and boys were so brutally raped in prisons that they could no longer return to normal lives. Additionally, he unveiled a part of the facts, and told of:

• Abandoning of corpses on streets;
• Stacking prisoners on top of each other, beating them and pouring water over them; and
• Murdering raped women by the Pasdaran (regime’s security forces).

From the outset of the mullahs’ rule, rape has been a method of torture and a weapon employed by the mullahs against the Iranian people and particularly women.

Consider the three decades of suppression and torture in Iran against women. Indeed, what is the ultimate weapon? When all other forms of torture and even hangings and massacres fail to force women from the arena, when torturers are defeated in the face of the glorious resistance of Mojahed and other activist women, then the final weapon, in other words the gender card is used and accusations, allegations and violations of a women’s dignity begins.

Indeed, what is Assadollah Lajevardi (the lead henchman of the regime) known for best?

That is why the goal of our struggle is to undo religious fascism in its entirety; an ideology whose culture and history is summarized simply as rape and aggression; abuse and violence against the dignity, self-respect and rights of Iranian women and men.

I wish to say to Mullah Khamenei and his crony Ahmadinejad that in this unequal battle that you have forced on the Iranian people and resistance – in which Iranian women are in the vanguard – all the hatred and suppression you used to wipe out the Mojahedin and other activist opponents worked against you. Now you see that your regime is splintering and approaching its downfall. You ordered your ally in Iraq, Maleki, to battle the generation of Iranians whom you failed to destroy. But certain defeat awaits Maleki as well.

Indeed, you will be defeated in Ashraf, the strategic heart of the battle, where 1000 women are in the vanguard of opposition to you.

The Iranian regime has been worn out by the resistance of the residents of Ashraf and its women. During the attack on July 28th and 29th, if it was not for the steadfastness of the women of Ashraf who formed a human chain to defend others, and if it was not for their praiseworthy spirit, faith, and endurance, and specially their leadership and vanguard role, no doubt the number of martyrs and injured would be significantly higher. This is what the men of Ashraf have said.

I must recall that the women of Ashraf are mostly former political prisoners or students and graduates from universities in Iran, Europe and the US. They are a liberated generation of women who chose to join the resistance and stand steadfast in Ashraf voluntarily with great self-sacrifice in order to liberate their people and country.

They are role models of liberation and progress not only for their own sisters in Iran but for women in all countries of the region.

That is why defending Ashraf amounts to supporting the struggle against religious fascism which counts as the immediate threat to global peace and security.

On this basis, I invite activists of the movement for gender equality and my sisters all over the world to support the women of Ashraf and to defend the arisen women in Iran. I call on you to encourage the entire world to oppose the aggression of religious fascism against Iranian women. Girls who are bravely taking part in uprisings and mothers who for the past two months have protested in front of Evin prison and the regime’s so-called courts are looking to you for support.

In this struggle, we depend on a great deal of help which is the support of our people and of the global sisterhood.

I call on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Rapporteur on violence against women, as well as women and human rights committees in various parliaments, to take measures to protect women in Ashraf against the threats of belligerent criminals.

Today, the women of Ashraf are threatened with the repeat of violent attacks. The armed attackers have taken an aggressive formation with the same weapons and instruments of death. This is an urgent situation and there is no security guaranteed.

US forces have in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and in violation of their international commitments, transferred security of Ashraf to Iraqi forces and abandoned their commitment to Ashraf residents and have forsaken even the least amount of their monitoring responsibility.

I caution that this will turn into a huge scandal for President Obama.

On the other hand, the treatment of women in Ashraf by Maliki’s armed forces is, in the language of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, a blatant example of state violence against women.

The intimidating presence in Ashraf of Maleki’s forces violates numerous articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and has deprived Ashraf residents of such rights as the “right to life,” “right to freedom and security,” and “right to protection from violent, inhumane and degrading treatment.”

Thus the women of Ashraf have on this basis filed a complaint against the Iraqi government in competent international bodies, and the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s Women’s Committee is actively pursuing this case in international bodies.

The violent treatment of women increasingly demonstrated that the Iraqi forces’ assignment in Ashraf was not to maintain security but on the contrary to deprive it of security.

To prevent further catastrophes, I call on the international community and especially the US, EU and the UN to attempt to fulfill the following demands:

1. Political prisoners, especially female prisoners in Iran, who have been subjected to terrifying circumstances, must be urgently freed;
2. The 36 residents of Ashraf who have been taken hostage must immediately be released and the Iraqi forces must leave Ashraf without delay;
3. The United States government must temporarily take over protection of Ashraf. Article 45 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires the US to do so.
4. As a long-term solution, an international force led by the United Nations must assume protection of Ashraf. As a first step in that direction, a monitoring team must be deployed to supervise the situation in Ashraf.

I would like to salute the valiant residents of Ashraf and their defenders and supporters in Iran and around the world.

I salute the 36 PMOI hostages who have been on hunger strike for the past 20 days, as well as protestors in Ashraf and in all four corners of the world who have launched a hunger strike for the past 18 days and all those who endure hardships, hunger, and illnesses to continue this struggle.

I am confident that faced with such immense faith and determination coupled with the extensive support from the Iranian people, the mullahs and their puppets will have no other fate other than defeat and disgrace.

Please allow me to conclude my remarks by referring to Massoud Rajavi’s recent message where he said that the recent great epic in Ashraf with all its martyrs, heroism, and sufferings of the injured and detained, guarantees the advance of the struggle in subsequent phases…

Hail to the uprising of the Iranian people for freedom
Hail to the noble people of Ashraf and particularly 1000 heroic women there

Thank you all