Following are excerpts from the speech of PMOI Secretary General Zahra Merrikhi on the 60th anniversary of the founding of PMOI:
Proud compatriots,
Brave members of the Resistance Units,
Imprisoned PMOI members and freedom fighters,
Supporters of the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance!
With heartfelt congratulations, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Congratulations to all of you.
This is the blossoming of 120 years of struggle by the Iranian people against both the shah and the mullahs, and it deserves the highest praise.
Hail to the great Mohammad Hanifnejad and his comrades Saeed Mohsen and Asghar Badizadegan. Souls and minds filled with goodness and purity, each a symbol of wisdom, foresight, compassion, sincerity, and noble character.
Their teachings, engraved in the conscience of Iranian society with their precious blood, placed truthfulness and sacrifice as the highest virtues.
Though materially empty-handed, they possessed immense spiritual strength in awakening a forgotten humanity that had lost sight of its true power.
At a time when dictatorship and dependence had seemingly brought the freedom movement to a dead end, they, with admirable anti-reactionary insight, “wiped the dust from the face of religion.”
With their vision of “revolutionary Islam” that transcended the challenges of their time and looked toward the farthest horizons of liberation, they introduced a new blueprint:
- A distinction between the exploited and the exploiter—history’s most fundamental divide.
- A blueprint for a free society.
- A system based on justice and equality, rooted in the rejection of exploitation, ignorance, and coercion, free from repression and discrimination between men and women, and upholding the rights of all nationalities.
The name of this blueprint is the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
The sincere founders of this vision were executed by the Shah’s SAVAK torturers.
By sacrificing their lives, those pioneers—as Ayatollah Taleghani put it—opened the path of struggle and the overthrow of the monarchic dictatorship.
And beyond that:
- They firmly distinguished the real faith of the Prophet Muhammad from any reactionary interpretation, highlighting its anti-exploitative essence.
- They created a struggle and an organization founded on ideals, laying the groundwork for a full-scale professional resistance movement.
Therefore, the 60th anniversary of this movement—which, based on these very principles, has traversed a long path through hardship, suffering, and bloodshed—represents the triumph of the most important theoretical and idealistic innovations and breakthroughs of the PMOI founders.
At the same time, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran is a liberation project that, under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, has responded to the greatest ideological and political challenges in modern Iranian history over the past half-century.
Compatriots!
From the beginning, the great Hanifnejad envisioned the PMOI within the vast horizon of a radiant future, tied to the highest interests of the Iranian people. It defends all forces of the people’s front, and its fabric is woven from their struggle and sacrifice.
The life and movement of this organization is born from the perseverance of courageous prisoners—from the unnamed heroes of 1981 to the most recent, like Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani.
Yes, this organization is a national treasure and the embodiment of the fury and uprising of resistance, and the anguish of a nation in chains.
Compatriots!
It is evident to all that the ruling regime—especially after a series of major defeats over the past year—is now at the height of political, military, and international helplessness.
It is also entirely clear that across all economic and social domains, countless unresolved and unsolvable contradictions have accumulated, fueling widespread rebellion and unrest in society.
However, precisely because these conditions are so acutely volatile and explosive, they leave no room for various solutions or choices. As far as the regime’s Supreme Leader and his political and class collaborators are concerned, the only solution for the regime—as always—is the most brutal repression to contain a society on the verge of uprising.
And as for the people and the people’s front, the only path is revolution to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.
Yes, the answer lies in a revolutionary solution.
The regime has no cards left to escalate repression and is entirely in a frightened and defensive posture.
It is no coincidence that the remnants of the previous dictatorship, after years of pretending to be advocates of democracy, have finally declared their own “emergency phase” playbook as their solution.
A solution based on martial law, the use and strengthening of the most savage current repressive institutions, and the reconstruction of an absolute monarchy. This is the solution of rabid neofascism.
We must emphasize that any path, any orientation, and any alternative that does not rely on a democratic revolution and a democratic republic inevitably leads to reaction, despotism, and dependence.
Truly, the past 60 years and the struggles against two dictatorships—especially the horrific religious despotism—with all its pain, suffering, and pure blood shed, represent the most complex test in a nation’s history and the brightest chapter in Iran’s history.
A chapter in which a towering edifice of resistance, revolutionary spirit, and the highest liberating virtues has been built.
May future generations speak more and more of the relentless battle waged by the brave children of Iran in its darkest era.
The message of the PMOI on the milestone of 60 years of its vibrant and militant revolutionary life—especially to the younger generation—is a call for continuous revolution, for liberation from tyranny, colonialism, and exploitation.