On the eve of March 8, celebrated globally as International Women’s Day, the Resistance Units, the network of activists supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), held activities across the country to mark courage and leading role of women in the struggle for freedom in Iran. Defying the Iranian regime’s repressive measures, the Resistance Units posted images of Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), with messages that underline the immense role that Iran’s women are playing in the fight against the tyrannical regime of the mullahs.
Maryam Rajavi, in her repeated messages, emphasized that the mullahs’ regime, which adopts misogynistic and regressive stances, has made Iranian women its main and most feared enemy. Overthrowing this regime will be achieved with the leading role Iranian women, who have become symbols of resistance and change. This resistance has been marked throughout the history of the Iranian Resistance, with tens of thousands of PMOI members tortured, executed, and murdered by the regime in the past four decades. And it can be clearly seen in the role that Iranian girls and women play in nationwide uprisings, especially those who are joining the ranks of the Resistance Units.
The activities of the Resistance Units extended across the country, from Tehran to Shiraz and from Sari to Karaj, expressing the will and determination of women to confront injustice and tyranny.
In Karaj, a poster featured Maryam Rajavi’s image and message: “The Iranian people’s uprising will sweep away the corrupt mullahs.” Another poster read, “Women’s struggles and protests are a bridge to freedom.” And another read, “The women of Iran will defeat the religious tyranny.”
In Tehran, a poster of Maryam Rajavi read, “The responsibility of [Iranian] women and girls is to organize the uprisings.” A Resistance Unit member held a mobile phone with an image of Maryam Rajavi and the message: “The mullahs’ regime will be overthrown with the leadership of Maryam Rajavi and the leading role of Iranian women.”
In Shiraz, a poster read, “The cry of Iranian women is ‘yes to all-out resistance” and ‘no to compromise and surrender.'”
In Kermanshah, the Resistance Units installed posters that read, “The struggles and protests of women is a bridge to freedom” and “Iran’s society deserves freedom and democracy and equality between women and men.”
In Lahijan, a poster with the photo of Maryam Rajavi read, “The voice of protesting women is the loudest voice of the oppressed against the mullahs’ regime.”
And in Hamedan, Resistance Units members held posters that read, “Defeating religious tyranny is the task of Iran’s rebellious women” and “The struggles and protests of women is a bridge to freedom.”
In Zahedan, Resistance Units members held placards with the message: “The women of Iran have the power to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.”
These activities are taking place while the regime has been increasing its repressive measures against PMOI supporters and relatives. In the past few months, regime authorities have been arresting relatives of PMOI members and handing out long prison sentences to women who support the PMOI.
This regime has built its rule on the foundation of fundamentalism and misogyny. However, its efforts to trample the rights of women has given rise to an unprecedented resistance movement led by women.
In a speech in 1996, Mrs. Rajavi said to the mullahs, “You have done your utmost to humiliate, suppress, torture and slaughter Iranian women, but rest assured that you would receive the blow from the very force you discounted, the very force whom your reactionary mindset cannot allow you to take into consideration. Rest assured that these knowledgeable and free women will dismantle your oppression everywhere.”
Today, these women are taking major steps toward fulfilling that vision and ending tyranny in Iran to establish a democratic republic.
