Iran celebrated the 40th anniversary of its revolution, which overthrew the sustained shah and ended 2500 years of monarchy to bring a Shia clergy of the Islamist movement to power.
This fortieth anniversary of the shah’s fall came at a difficult time for Iran. The country is in the grip of an economic recession, aggravated by the restoration of US sanctions, mismanagement and the uprising of the Iranian people. Street manifestations and public anger against the cost of living, human rights violations ( Visit www.maryam-rajavi.com/ for more about humain rights violation in Iran), oppression, as well as military interventions in Syria or Yemen, highlight unprecedented dissatisfaction.
Since the 1979 revolution, this uprising has been the first major event, initially motivated by economic concerns. It was the explosion of frustrations about the political and economic stagnation that the Iranian population had repressed. The Iranian people are burning the regime’s flag and the portraits of its leaders and no longer accept electoral games, political manipulation and system deception. His only wish: a free and republican Iran.
The feeling of a forthcoming overthrow of the regime is hovering heavily in Iran and, for the first time, the Iranian leaders themselves are openly raising this possibility. On 12 December 2018, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the regime, issued a call for vigilance to all ministries and government institutions. Mohsen Qhara’ati, a senior religious leader and close to the Ayatollahs for several decades, said that the government must accept the fact that the power base had failed her. The mullahs’ regime is clearly out of breath.
In the face of religious dictatorship
Unlike the Arab spring countries, Iran is fortunate to have an alternative to the religious dictatorship that has been in place for nearly 40 years: the CNRI. It is one of the main political groups against the Ayatollah regime since the fall of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The CNRI is a unique resistance movement, a movement that marks contemporary history both by its modernity, through the special place given to young people and especially to women, in its direction but also by its sustainability, since it has been active for 40 years.
Since the outbreak of the protests and riots, thousands of Iranians and resistance networks in dozens of Iranian cities have called for support from Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, visit https://www.maryam-rajavi.com/en/activities for more information about Maryam Rajavi activities. In her speeches, she refers to the worsening economic situation, and points out that the Iranian people are really starving as the leaders of the current regime destroy all the country’s property and relentlessly repress its citizens, even though Iran is one of the richest countries in the world.
Maryam Rajavi’s very harsh words have undoubtedly been at the root of the riots since December 2017. The multiple terrorist attacks, arrests and heavy sentences handed down by the courts against its supporters have not succeeded in extinguishing the Iranian flame, quite the contrary, it has even increased.
For free Iranian women
Many people gather around her, show their support and encourage her in her program. The 10-point plan it has been proposing for years involves the total abolition of the existing regime and its replacement by a democratic system through free and fair elections, but also by secular governance, guarantees on the rights of women and minorities, and a commitment to peaceful relations with its neighbours. This programme for a free Iran has already received the support of many Iranians, CNRI officials and their international supporters.
It is now impossible for the current regime to continue to govern as before. Recent events have undermined all the political, cultural and ideological foundations of the Islamist regime.