Women are one of the main victims of the religious extremism and human rights abuses rife in Iran, the UK representative of the National Council of Resistance (NCRI) said in an interview.
Sharia law and the regime’s oppression of women has nothing to do religion or with God and is not in line with international norms and conventions, Dowlat Norouzi said in an interview with Council of Europe TV.
Mrs. Norouzi said: “In addition to all the general barriers that women are facing all over the world, in Iran the situation is much worse because women are facing a very brutal religious dictatorship that is justifying repression, terror and particularly discrimination under the excuse of the Islamic religion.
“It is obvious that the Sharia law or other measures that are taken by the Iranian regime against women has nothing to do neither with religion nor with God.
“We are saying that human rights are women’s rights and the situation of women in Iran needs to be supported in challenging Islamic fundamentalism and extremism whose roots are in Iran.
“All women have been prime victims of this terrible phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism and the misuse of religion to justify repression and dictatorship.”
Mrs Norouzi also praised the important presence of women in the Iranian Resistance, adding: “The opposition movement led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is the antithesis to Islamic fundamentalism.
“It holds a tolerant, democratic and very progressive view of Islam that values human rights, women’s rights, especially separation of religion from the state and the government and it also wants to establish equal rights for women in all fields.
“Her movement has been striving to establish human rights and democracy in Iran. So it has gained a lot of support all over Iran as well as outside Iran in order to change this religious theocratic regime and bring about democracy in our homeland..
“This fundamentalist government ruling Iran is the first ‘Islamic’ state in power that has a lot of money and political leadership in a very strategic country in the Middle East, so we need to stop it.
“You cannot fight Islamic fundamentalism and extremism with an anti-Islamic culture. You need democratic, tolerant, progressive Muslims to be able to confront it and say that extremist, fanatical Islam has nothing to do with religion.
“I think Europe must first of all recognize the Iranian position movement led by Maryam Rajavi as an antithesis that they need to support and allow its voice to be heard.
“I think that both politically economically, Europe must impose sanctions on this brutal regime, along with the some 61 resolutions already passed by United Nations’ various bodies condemning violations of human rights in Iran.
“It is time for the world community to impose further sanctions and also to refer the Iran dossier of violations and atrocities to the UN Security Council to impose various measures.
“One of them would be for the officials of the Iranian regime responsible for massacres and crimes to face justice. This would help our people to gain momentum against this regime for a change, for democracy and for human rights.”
