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The Washington Post     |     Babak Dehghanpisheh     |      April 26, 2023

It was 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday when the teacher began receiving frantic calls. There had been a gas attack on the girls elementary school where she taught, in the Kurdish region of western Iran.

She had not been in class that April morning but rushed to the school and found a chaotic scene: Students and a few of her fellow teachers were having difficulty breathing and said their eyes were burning. Some of the teachers had been beaten by furious parents and were crying, she said. Agents from the Ministry of Intelligence had arrived to investigate.

The teacher spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that her name and the location of her school not be revealed, fearing retaliation from the government.

In recent months across Iran, about 300 suspected gas attacks have hit more than 100 girls schools, according to Amnesty International. Deputy Health Minister Saeed Karimi said last month that 13,000 students had been treated for symptoms of suspected poisoning, according to the Shargh daily newspaper. No deaths were reported.

The attacks began in November in the holy city of Qom. A lull occurred when schools were closed for Nowruz, the Iranian new year, in late March. But the attacks appear to have picked up again over the past couple of weeks as schools reopened, sparking widespread panic and confusion.

“The parents are really scared, and a lot of them won’t send their kids to school anymore,” the teacher said in a telephone interview. “Some parents have said they are willing to have their child held back a year at school just to keep them out of danger.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in early March that those behind the attacks must be brought to justice. Soon after, the Ministry of Interior announced that more than 100 people in 11 provinces had been arrested. “Among those arrested are individuals with hostile motives with the goal of creating fear and panic among the people and students and to close schools and create a negative view toward the authorities,” the ministry said in a statement in the publication Hamshahri.

No charges appear to have been filed against those arrested.

The head of the Iranian parliament’s education committee, Alireza Monadi, said last month that tests conducted by the Ministry of Health had detected nitrogen gas in schools in Qom. But there has been no official government statement identifying what gas or gases may have been used.

“These have been very organized and coordinated attacks. It can’t be random people doing that,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights. “It’s either groups with the blessing of the authorities or forces within the authorities.”

A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment.

The teacher in the Kurdish region said her colleagues reported smelling bleach and rotten fruit before falling ill. After the suspected attacks, schoolgirls have been hospitalized with symptoms including heart palpitations, vomiting and numbness in their limbs, according to Amnesty.

Two weeks ago, a 65-year-old man took his elderly mother to a hospital in the northeast city of Mashhad and found the lobby filled with about a dozen schoolgirls who he said were coughing and panting. He filmed the scene on his phone and shared the video with The Post.

The man said in an interview that he talked to one of the girls, who described sitting in class when she smelled something like sewage before feeling dizzy and short of breath.

Women and girls have been at the forefront of the anti-government uprising that erupted in September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict laws on female dress and died in the custody of Iran’s “morality police.”

As the protests spread, hundreds of girls took off their headscarves at school and chanted anti-government slogans. In one video widely shared on social media in October, dozens of schoolgirls, many of them without the hijab, confronted a Ministry of Education official in the city of Karaj and chased him off the campus.

Women burning their headscarves became a defining image of the demonstrations, which have died down in recent weeks amid an increasingly brutal government crackdown. At least 530 people have been killed by security forces and nearly 20,000 detained, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. But some women and girls continue to protest the hijab law more casually — refusing to cover themselves in public while going about their daily activities.

“The issue of hijab and women is an Achilles’ heel for the leaders of the Islamic republic,” Mohammad Habibi, a spokesman for the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association, told The Post in an interview from Tehran last month.

“The setting aside of forced hijab and the visibility of this at the social level was definitely not acceptable for the authorities, especially religious and extremist elements,” he added. “They could not accept this open social atmosphere.”

Habibi was arrested on April 5 and taken to Evin prison, his wife Khadijeh Pakzamir tweeted. On April 11, she tweeted that phone communication with him had been cut off.

Organized attacks against women have happened before in Iran. In 2014, at least four women were sprayed in the face with acid in the city of Isfahan in what many suspected was a campaign by religious extremists to enforce conservative dress codes. At the time, the government came under similar criticism for not pursuing the case more aggressively. Although arrests were made, no one was charged in the attacks.

The government has tried to point to other possible causes for the illnesses at girls schools, according to activists and health-care workers. Official meetings have been organized at hospitals to inform medical personnel about the Ministry of Health’s protocols for dealing with suspected poisoning cases.

Doctors have been told they should console the victims and their families and tell them it is a stress-related issue, a psychiatrist who attended two recent meetings at a hospital in northern Mazandaran province said in an interview. They also spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity, fearing backlash from the authorities.

The World Health Organization told The Post that it “has offered support to [Iran’s] Ministry of Health in the management of these events from a public health perspective” and that an expert team “is on standby for deployment should this be requested.”

The teacher at the elementary school in the Kurdish region said that two of her colleagues were hospitalized after the suspected gas attack. She said one of them told her last week that she was still experiencing terrible headaches and numbness in her hands and feet.

Intelligence agents have returned to the school several times, she said, interviewing administrators and confiscating CCTV footage. The principal of the school told her that agents appeared to be looking for footage of parents, some of whom chanted anti-government slogans and argued with them.

“Many people suspect the government is responsible,” said the teacher. “They say that the government is trying to discourage girls from coming to school or that the government doesn’t want the ‘woman, life, freedom’ movement to start up again.”

Panic spreads in Iran after new suspected poison attacks on girls schools

CHILD DETAINEES IN IRAN SUBJECTED TO FLOGGING, ELECTRIC SHOCKS AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN BRUTAL PROTEST CRACKDOWN

Amnesty International     |     March 16, 2023

Iran’s intelligence and security forces have been committing horrific acts of torture, including beatings, flogging, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence against child protesters as young as 12 to quell their involvement in nationwide protests, said Amnesty International today.

Marking six months of the unprecedented popular uprising in Iran, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, Amnesty International reveals the violence meted out to children arrested during and in the aftermath of protests. The research exposes the torture methods that the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij, the Public Security Police and other security and intelligence forces used against boys and girls in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced “confessions.”

“Iranian state agents have torn children away from their families and subjected them to unfathomable cruelties. It is abhorrent that officials have wielded such power in a criminal manner over vulnerable and frightened children, inflicting severe pain and anguish upon them and their families and leaving them with severe physical and mental scars. This violence against children exposes a deliberate strategy to crush the vibrant spirit of the country’s youth and stop them from demanding freedom and human rights,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The authorities must immediately release all children detained solely for peacefully protesting. With no prospect of effective impartial investigations into the torture of children domestically, we call on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction over Iranian  officials, including those with a command or superior responsibility, reasonably suspected of  criminal responsibility for crimes under international law, including the torture of child  protesters.”

Since the start of Amnesty International’s investigations into the Iranian authorities’ brutal crackdown on the uprising, the organization has documented the cases of seven children in detail. The organization obtained testimonies from the victims and their families, as well as further testimonies on the widespread commission of torture against scores of children from 19 eyewitnesses, including two lawyers and 17 adult detainees who were held alongside children. The victims and eyewitnesses interviewed were from provinces across Iran, including East Azerbaijan, Esfahan, Golestan, Kermanshah, Khorasan-e  Razavi, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Sistan and Baluchestan, Tehran, and Zanjan.

Amnesty International has removed any reference to identifying details, such as the ages of the children and the provinces in which they were detained, in order to protect them and their families against reprisals.

MASS DETENTION OF CHILDREN

Iranian authorities have admitted that the total number of people detained in connection with the protests was above 22,000. While they have not provided a breakdown of how many of those detained were children, state media reported that children comprised a significant portion of protesters. Based on testimonies of dozens of detainees from across the country who witnessed security forces detaining scores of children, coupled with the fact that children and youth have been at the forefront of protests, Amnesty International estimates that thousands of children could have been among those swept up in the wave of arrests.

Amnesty International’s findings indicate that arrested children, like adults, were first taken, often while blindfolded, to detention centers run by the Revolutionary Guards, the Ministry of Intelligence, the Public Security Police, the investigation unit of Iran’s police (Agahi) or the Basij paramilitary force. After days or weeks of incommunicado detention or enforced disappearance, they were moved to recognized prisons. Plainclothes agents abducted others from the streets during or in the aftermath of protests, took them to unofficial places such as warehouses, where they tortured them before abandoning them in remote locations. Such abductions were conducted without any due process and were intended to punish, intimidate and deter children from participating in protests.

Many children have been held alongside adults, contrary to international standards, and subjected to the same patterns of torture and other ill-treatment. A former adult detainee told Amnesty International that, in one province, Basij agents forced several boys to stand with their legs apart in a line alongside adult detainees and administered electric shocks to their genital area with stun guns.

Most of the children arrested over the past six months appear to have been released, sometimes on bail pending investigations or referral to trial. Many were only released after being forced to sign “repentance” letters and promising to refrain from “political activities” and to attend pro-government rallies.

Before releasing them, state agents often threatened children with the prosecution on charges carrying the death penalty or with the arrest of their relatives if they complained.

In at least two cases documented by Amnesty International, despite the threat of reprisals, victims’ families filed official complaints before judicial authorities, but none were investigated.

RAPE AND OTHER SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Amnesty International’s documentation also reveals that state agents used rape and other sexual violence, including electric shocks to genitals, touching genitals, and rape threats as a weapon against child detainees to break their spirits, humiliate and punish them,

and/or extract “confessions.” This pattern is also widely reported by adult women and men detainees.

State agents also hurled sexual slurs at detained girls and accused them of wanting to bare their naked bodies simply for protesting for women’s and girls’ rights and defying compulsory veiling.

One mother told Amnesty International that state agents raped her son with a hosepipe while he forcibly disappeared. She said:

“My son told me: ‘They hung [me] to the point that I felt like my arms were about to rip off. I was forced to say what they wanted because they raped me with a hosepipe. They were taking my hand and forcibly making me fingerprint the papers’.”

BEATINGS, FLOGGINGS, ELECTRIC SHOCKS AND OTHER ABUSES

Security forces regularly beat children at the time of arrest, in vehicles during transfer, and in detention centers. Other torture methods recounted include floggings, administering electric shocks using stun guns, the forced administration of unidentified pills, and holding children’s heads underwater.

In one case, several schoolboys were abducted for writing the protest slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” on a wall. A relative of one of the victims told Amnesty International that plainclothes state agents abducted the boys, took them to an unofficial location, tortured and threatened to rape them, and then dumped them semi-conscious in a remote area hours later. The boy told the relative:

“They gave us electric shocks, hit me in my face with the back of a gun, gave electric shocks to my back and beat me on my feet, back and hands with batons. They threatened that if we told anyone, they would  [detain us again], do even worse and deliver our corpses to our families.”

Victims and families told Amnesty International how state agents also choked children, suspended them from their arms or from scarves wrapped around their necks, and forced them to perform humiliating acts.

One boy recounted:

“They told us [over a dozen people] to make chicken noises for half an hour – for so long that we ‘lay eggs’.  They forced us to do push-ups for one hour. I was the only child there. In another detention center, they put 30 of us in a cage made for five people.”

State agents also used psychological torture, including death threats, to punish and intimidate children and/or compel them to make forced “confessions”. State media has broadcast the “forced confessions” of at least two boys detained during protests.

The mother of a girl who was detained by the Revolutionary Guards told Amnesty International:

“They accused her of burning headscarves, insulting the Supreme Leader and wanting to overthrow [the  Islamic Republic], and told her she will be sentenced to death. They threatened her not to tell anyone … They forced her to sign and fingerprint documents. She has nightmares and doesn’t go anywhere. She can’t even read her schoolbooks.”

Children were also held in cruel and inhuman detention conditions, including extreme overcrowding, poor access to toilet and washing facilities, deprivation of sufficient food and potable water, exposure to extreme cold and prolonged solitary confinement. Girls were held by all-male security forces with no regard for their gender-specific needs.  Children were also denied adequate medical care, including for injuries sustained under torture.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/child-detainees-in-iran-subjected-to-flogging-electric-shocks-and-sexual-violence-in-brutal-protest-crackdown/

Bipartisan House Resolution Rejects Monarchic, Religious Dictatorship, Endorses a Republic in Iran

Townhall     |     Majid Rafizadeh     |     Feb 15, 2023

As we marked the 44th anniversary of the 1979 revolution in Iran, we were reminded of the transformative power of people’s movements to bring about change. The overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy and the establishment of a republic in Iran held great promise for the people, but it was quickly subverted by Khomeini and his reactionary mullahs, who have since been responsible for unimaginable human rights abuses, terrorism, regional destabilization, and the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Since September, the Iranian theocracy has faced a wave of social upheaval and mass protests demanding democratic change. Women, young people, and scores of others have taken to the streets to call for a secular republic that respects their individual rights and freedoms. These calls have not gone unheard, as evidenced by a significant conference held on Capitol Hill this month, where several US lawmakers introduced House Resolution 100, calling for a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic in Iran.

The resolution currently has an unprecedented number of 165 bipartisan cosponsors, and it strongly condemns the violations of human rights and state-sponsored terrorism of the Iranian regime. Furthermore, it rejects both the Shah’s deposed monarchy and the ruling theocracy, and voices support for a democratic and secular republic in Iran.

A senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Tom McClintock, said the measure expresses the united support of the American people for the Iranian people in their struggle for a better future. It is also noteworthy that the resolution strongly condemns the violations of human rights and the state-sponsored terrorism of the Iranian regime.

Moreover, it rejects both the Shah’s deposed dictatorship and ruling theocracy, and voices support for a democratic and secular republic in Iran.

Addressing the congressional conference, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, rightly pointed out the significance of Congress’s move, adding that it sends a clear message to the people of Iran that they are not alone in their fight for freedom and democracy.

The Iranian people’s passion for freedom and their commitment to liberating their homeland is an inspiration to all who know them. Congress has done the right thing by joining voices with a growing chorus calling for liberty and justice in Iran.

This resolution is a significant step forward in the fight for democracy in Iran, and it sends a message to the regime in Iran that the world is watching. The people of the United States and the international community stand firmly behind the protesters and the people that Tehran is oppressing and killing.

Despite its ebbs and flows, the ongoing revolution in Iran is destined to succeed because there are numerous signs that the people are rejecting all forms of dictatorship, including the Shah’s monarchy that devastated the country’s socio-political progress until 1979. Iranians are now looking only to the future, which will see the establishment of a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state, and gender equality.

It is time for the regime in Iran to change. This is a regime that has responded to peaceful protests with violence, massacres, torture, and imprisonment. It must be held accountable for its crimes against humanity, including the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. Otherwise, the regime’s murder machine will continue to outpace international condemnations.

Some 10,000 Iranian supporters of the NCRI who rallied in the street of Paris this past Sunday echoed the same message, calling on the European Union to end its appeasement of Iran and support a democratic, secular republic in Iran. They were joined by John Bercow, the former Speaker of the British Parliament, and Ingrid Betancourt, former Columbian Senator and Presidential Candidates, who voiced support for the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran.

The world cannot stand by and watch as the people of Iran are denied their basic rights. Adopting the example of the US Congress, the world must take action to support the people of Iran in their fight for freedom and democracy. Not the just the future of Iran, but that of the entire region and the world is at stake. A democratic Iran will benefit everyone. The scourge of the mullahs should end, not tomorrow, but today.

https://townhall.com/columnists/majidrafizadeh/2023/02/15/bipartisan-house-resolution-rejects-monarchic-religious-dictatorship-endorses-a-republic-in-iran-n2619584

Activists say prisoners chanted antigovernment slogans;
Parliament clears police in Mahsa Amini’s death.
The fire Saturday at Evin Prison in Tehran, which the U.S. says is a political prison for dissidents and foreigners and is known to hold demonstrators from recent protests.

WSJ     |     By Benoit Faucon and David S. Cloud      |      Oct. 16, 2022

The protest movement sweeping Iran spread to a Tehran prison known as a symbol of political repression in a new challenge to the Islamic Republic, with detained dissidents chanting antigovernment slogans before violence erupted and a deadly fire engulfed the facility, activists said.

Authorities said the fire killed four inmates and blamed a planned escape attempt on Saturday for the mayhem at Evin Prison, a complex in north Tehran erected by the shah five decades ago that serves as a political prison for dissidents and foreigners. A large fire was visible at Evin from the densely populated neighboring communities, and loud bangs were heard through much of the night.

The melee started in a ward of the prison that houses inmates convicted of financial crimes and other criminal offenses but quickly spread to areas where political prisoners and dissidents are held, prompting guards to bring in reinforcements and firefighters to put down the protests and extinguish the fire, according to officials and human rights activists.

By Sunday morning, authorities said they were back in control, but the unrest marked another indication that the country’s Islamic leadership is facing one of the gravest tests in its 43-year existence. The protests that first focused on the country’s mandatory hijab, or head covering, for women have morphed into something larger, calling for the end of the strict Islamic governance ushered in with the country’s 1979 revolution. While authorities said the prison violence had nothing to do recent protests, witnesses and advocates for the prisoners said the extraordinary incident at Evin was another sign that the leaderless movement was spreading beyond the government’s control.

Protests continued across Iran over the weekend, according to footage verified by Storyful, which is owned by News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. In Ardabil, a town in northwest Iran, there were demonstrations after a teachers’ association said a schoolgirl was beaten to death after a pro-regime event turned into an anti-government protest. The government has denied responsibility, saying she had died from a heart condition.

By the accounts of both activists and the government, the violence at Evin began on Saturday.

In the women’s ward of the prison, some inmates broke down the door of the two-story building housing around 45 prisoners, and moved into the staff area of the prison yard, where they started chanting antigovernment slogans, said Atena Daemi, a human-rights activist in Tehran who was released from Evin eight months ago after seven years imprisoned there. She said she had heard accounts of the riot from eight families, who received brief calls Sunday from prisoners in Evin’s women’s ward.

A prison guard warned the women, some of whom weren’t wearing mandatory headscarves, that they would be killed unless they went back into the building, Ms. Daemi said, citing the accounts told by the families.

Guards fired tear gas and threw “something like a grenade,” Ms. Daemi said she was told. Women also reported seeing guards armed with rifles aiming at them with laser sights, which project a visible beam.

Two women prisoners—Sepideh Kashani, an environmental activist, and Zahra Safaei, a political activist—were overcome by the tear gas and needed treatment, Ms. Daemi said, citing accounts from the families. None of the women imprisoned in the ward were arrested during recent protests, she said.

“They said everybody in the women’s ward is safe, but the situation is tense,” Ms. Daemi said. “Due to the large amount of tear gas used in the prison, some of them have burning eyes and shortness of breath.”

The government has arrested hundreds of protesters, jailing the most politically active ones in Evin, said members of the protest movement and human-rights activists. They include six students at the Sharif University who were arrested when the elite Tehran institution was surrounded by police two weeks ago, say students who escaped the raid. Another affected ward held political prisoners, according to accounts gathered by the Free Union of Iranian Workers, the main umbrella of trade unions, which has many members held at Evin. Some Evin prisoners had gathered in the courtyard and chanted slogans against the government on Friday, the union said.

Then on Saturday, prison officials tried to intimidate the prisoners, who later protested and rioted, the union said. When family members went to the prison to check on their relatives’ safety, they were initially told Sunday that they wouldn’t be allowed to talk with prisoners, Ms. Daemi added. But when the families protested, they were allowed to have brief conversations.

On Sunday morning, families of detainees could be seen outside the prison seeking news of their jailed relatives. More than 15,000 inmates are said to be held at the sprawling complex on the outskirts of Tehran. Authorities said Saturday’s melee began in Ward 7, which is supposed to be for inmates convicted of financial crimes. The inmates set fire to a sewing workshop, according to Iran’s state media, adding that some prisoners had blades and tried to escape the prison. When prisoners from Ward 7 broke out of their building, they freed prisoners in Ward 8, Ms. Daemi said.

Among those in Ward 8 was Emad Shargi, an Iranian-American incarcerated at the prison on what the U.S. has called false charges, according to his sister, Neda Sharghi. She talked to him briefly Saturday night by phone, she said, hearing shooting and yelling in the background. Later he was moved to another ward, she said.

“He was moved from where the riots were,” she said. “We haven’t been able to get much more information.”

By early Sunday morning, Iranian state television aired a video showing that the prison was calm, though damaged by the fire. State media said the unrest had involved only prisoners convicted of theft and financial crimes, a claim disputed by human-rights activists.

Four inmates died of smoke inhalation and 61 were injured, state news agency IRNA said.

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American imprisoned on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington as baseless, has been detained at Evin for seven years. His lawyer, Jared Genser, said Mr. Namazi was placed in solitary confinement after the riots Saturday and told it was “for his own protection.” He was briefly furloughed earlier this month then returned to Evin.

Some prisoners were without water and food Sunday, according to Ms. Daemi, citing conversations with families of men incarcerated there. She said 45 prisoners had been transferred from Ward 8 since the melee, and an additional 14 who had been injured were returned without treatment.

Azin Mohajerin, the lead human-rights officer at Miaan Group, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization focused on human rights in Iran, said Evin and the rest of the prisons system in Iran is “overcrowded, above its maximum capacity after the large number of arrests during the protests.” Mr. Mohajerin, who is compiling a list of detainees and their conditions, said that Iran’s prisons are so full with detained protesters that arrested female high-school students are now mixed with adults in crowded cells.

Evin Prison and its management were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2018 for human-rights abuses. “Prisoners held at Evin Prison are subject to brutal tactics inflicted by prison authorities, including sexual assaults, physical assaults, and electric shock,” the Treasury Department said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-protests-spread-with-uprising-at-prison-11665932021

Thousands Rally at the UN, Voice Support for Iran Uprising, Condemn Raisi’s Presence

OIAC      |     September 23, 2022

New York, September 23, 2022 – Capping a weeklong series of exhibitions and daily picket lines, some 3,000 Iranian Americans from across 40 U.S. states held a major rally at New York’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to denounce Raisi and stand in solidarity with the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran calling for regime change.

According to the latest reports by the main Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), dozens have been killed by the Revolutionary Guards in protests in 100 cities and 30 provinces in Iran.

The participants in the NY rally heard from high profile former Senators Joe Liberman (D-CT), Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), and Ambassador Sam Brownback (R-KS), as well as Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudik. Speakers and the rally participants condemned the presence of Iranian regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi at the UN and called on the international community to prosecute him for his role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and other crimes against humanity in Iran.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), addressed the rally via a video link.  “From Saqqez, Sanandaj, and Divandarreh, to Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Mashhad, Rasht, and other cities of Iran, brave protesters have shaken the pillars of Khamenei’s oppressive rule with their chants of “From Kurdistan to Tehran, Iran is drenched in blood,” “Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is illegitimate,” and “Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the (mullahs’ supreme) leader,” Mrs. Rajavi said in her remarks.

Madam Rajavi highlighted the fact that, “Khamenei is himself in the throes of death. The public’s enormous hatred toward Ebrahim Raisi, as well as the decay and decline of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), signal the clerical regime’s end. Khamenei and Raisi drag their dying regime from one day to the next through the monthly executions of dozens of people…In contrast, the struggle and sacrifice of the MEK and Resistance Units give people hope and encourage them to prepare for the final uprising to bring down the mullahs.” Mrs. Rajavi called on the current session of the United Nations General Assembly to take immediate action regarding the clerical regime’s crimes against women, especially the crimes and daily killings by the mullahs’ guidance patrol.” Of note since the rally, the United States has placed sanctions on Iran’s “morality police.”

In his remarks, former Vice-Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman said, “I am proud again to stand with you today against Raisi, against Khamenei, and for freedom for the people of Iran. History is full of examples where regimes that nobody thought would be toppled have been overthrown.” Today he added, “this murderer is speaking to the organization that was founded to protect the peace. The protests are growing. The people of Iran, led by the resistance of Iran, supported by the NCRI and MEK, continue their protests.”

The choice is clear, Mr. Lieberman noted, “There is an alternative. It’s time to acknowledge that the regime in Iran will not change. It is time for us to change the regime and free the people of Iran. The resistance within the country bravely grows stronger, supported by the NCRI.”

Former Senator Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) told the crowd, “Raisi can call himself a president. We call him a murderer. Raisi wasn’t elected. He was chosen.” He alluded to Iranian regime terror operations in Europe and the U.S. and said, “What is the regime he represents? His government sent a diplomat with a bomb in a diplomatic pouch to plant it in a peaceful gathering to take out lives. Raisi is the head of that regime. That is the person who just spoke to the General Assembly. We are gathered because we will never forget what Iran was and we will never stop fighting for what Iran must become. We say to the world, what is right for Ukraine is right for Iran.” Senator Torricelli directed his remarks at the rulers in Tehran and said, “Joining me today to speak to you is Senator Lieberman and Senator Brownback. To the regime, take note of who they are and what they represent. Democrats and Republicans, we as Americans are united…we are as united for a free Iran as we are for a free Ukraine.”

Ambassador Sam Brownback, the former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, and former Governor and Senator said in his remarks, “The people of Iran are rising to claim their rightful place as a free people.” Raisi he said, “doesn’t deserve to address the UN. He deserves to be tried for the crimes he committed against his own people.” He added, “It is time to declare freedom for the people of Iran. That’s what we are for. We declare the end of the dictatorship over Iran. That’s what the people want.” With the growing protest and opposition movement he added, “the boiling point has been reached. The desire for change can no longer be contained.”

Ms. Kira Rudik, a leading Ukrainian parliamentarian said, “We are here to support each other as the free nations of Ukraine and Iran, People of free Iran. During these seven months [since the invasion of Ukraine], there were tough times when we didn’t know if there was hope. During these times, I told myself what Mrs. Rajavi told me: We can and we must.”

A number of distinguished Iranian Americans also addressed the rally. 

Dr. Siamack Shojai, an Economist, Educator, and Administrator said, “To the policymakers in the US and UN and EU capitals: regardless of which party is in the White House, I request that you look at history and see that the policy of appeasement will not stop the mullahs from acquiring nuclear weapons and will endanger the lives of millions of Iranians. We need regime change. Honorable Secretary-General of the UN General Assembly, clean your hands again and again. Because you shook the hands of the murderer Raisi who killed thousands of the best Iranians who stood for freedom. He should be prosecuted, not welcomed to the UN.”

In his remarks, Professor Kazem Kazerounian reiterated that, “The cries of anger that we hear in Iran today is not the voice of a mourning nation. It is the manifestation of a nation risen for change. This is the result of more than 40 years of persistence and resistance in the toughest of times. It is a resistance movement that has a plan, organization, leadership, and more importantly, has made sacrifices… We mark this year as the year of freedom, resistance, and equality. Our exams will be in the streets and squares of Iran.”

Former political prisoner Mrs. Sheila Neinavaei, who spent eight years in Iran’s prisons and came face-to-face with Raisi at the “Death Commission” in 1988, said in her remarks, “Last week, we witnessed the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the regime on bogus charges of violating hijab rules and killed a few hours later. For years, the regime became more violent. On the other hand, the members of the resistance became more resolute, to the point that the regime became desperate. The regime decided to eliminate the problem from the root.” Today she added, “the regime’s president is one of the key players of the 1988 massacre. It is a shame for the UN that Raisi is here today. But this will be the end of the regime.”

In his speech, Doctor Firouz Daneshgari, a renowned Professor and Surgeon at Case Western Reserve University said,  “I am addressing you as a former political prisoner who has been tortured and witnessed the murders committed by Raisi. He is a murderer who has no place among world leaders. He must be arrested and tried for his crimes against humanity. Khamenei appointed him to continue his brutality to suppress protests.” The ongoing uprisings he added, “will overthrow the regime. Hail to all the protesters across Iran.”

Ashraf Zadshir, MD, a California based researcher and physician also stated, “The conditions in Iran have caused a brain drain in Iran. As you know, many students are under the cruelest torture in Iran’s prisons, including Ali Younesi and Amirhossein Moradi.  She then decried Mahsa Amini’s senseless murder in the hands of IRGC security forces and said, “But Mahsa is not dead, Mahsa has become the spark for the current uprising for regime change.” She credited Maryam Rajavi and leadership of women in the Iranian resistance with inspiring a new generation of women and girls who lead the movement for democratic and secular republic in Iran.

In his remarks, Bishop Robert Stearns, the Founder and Executive Director of Eagles’ Wings, said, “We care about what’s happening in Iran because their issues touch our entire world. It’s an issue of freedom and human rights. The time for change is now.  People from many different faiths and religions can unite around this. It is time for the tyrant Raisi to go…We say Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan is the path to freedom. All of history teaches us that eventually evil falls and good triumphs. I know that change is coming very quickly in Iran. I believe that we will see very soon see the walls of evil fall and freedom come to the people of Iran.”

Reverend Dr. Marcus Miranda, President/CEO f New York State Chaplain Task Force said in his speech, “We’re closer to achieving freedom of equality, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion in Iran. Raisi continues to use execution to silence the majority in Iran. But the uprisings have begun and will not stop until freedom rings in Iran.” He said, “If the US wants stability in the Middle East, it must sit at the table with Mrs. Rajavi. Mrs. Rajavi should be addressing the UN, not Raisi.”

Seena Saiedian, a student at UC Berkeley and a member of the Organization of Iranian-American Communities’ young professional chapter reminded rally participants that, “Iranian society is so explosive than anything can trigger another major uprising and nationwide protest. And Mahsa’s death did just that. Iranians all across the country are risking their lives in the streets protesting her killing and calling for the downfall of the dictatorship.” Our message to these protesters is clear he aded, “we hear you, we stand by you, and we urge the international community to stand with you in rejecting the entirety of the regime.”

Kiana Afshar, a graduate of the University of Virginia and Member of OIAC’s Young Professionals said, “Chants denouncing the brutality of the government ring across the cities of Iran, clearly showing the collective despair and anger of the Iranian people against Raisi, Khamenei and the Mullahs.” ”My message to my brothers and sisters in Iran,” she added, “is that we are all here with you, until Iran is free again. And that day is not too far.”

Lawmakers urge Biden to deny Iranian president entry into US for UN meeting over ‘gross violations’ of rights

Over 50 Democrats and Republicans are urging Biden to keep the Iranian president from attending the UN assembly in New York

By Kelly Laco     |     Fox News     |     Sept. 8, 2022

EXCLUSIVE: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging President Biden to deny necessary “entry visas” for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation to attend the upcoming 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York City due to the foreign president’s record of supporting terrorism and violating human rights.

“We write to strongly urge you to deny entry visas to the United States for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation to attend the United Nations General Assembly’s 77th session in New York this September,” the 52 total lawmakers led by Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to Biden Thursday.

“The United States cannot overlook Ebrahim Raisi’s direct involvement in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including the 1988 organized mass murder of thousands of political prisoners, among whom were women and children, by the Iranian regime,” the letter continues.

 “A majority of those murdered were members or supporters of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK). Members of other political dissident groups were murdered as well. Raisi was a documented member of the Tehran ‘death committee,’ the group responsible for overseeing the massacre. It is highly concerning that Raisi and other members of the so called ‘death committee’ have not been investigated and charged with crimes against humanity. Furthermore, Raisi continues to publicly defend his role in the 1988 executions.”

“It is unacceptable that the Iranian government continues to back state-sponsored terrorist activities around the globe, including campaigns to assassinate American officials,” the congressmen continue, noting that the Department of Justice recently charged a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for planning to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

In addition, they cite Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State “the legal authority to deny entry” to any individuals who have been involved in any act of torture or killing.

The lawmakers note that two previous administrations in the last 10 years have denied entry visas to Iranian regime officials: in 2014, Iran’s UN Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, and in 2020, foreign minister Javad Zarif.

The letter comes as the Biden administration is still negotiating the final details of a renewed nuclear deal with Iran.

Last week, a group of 50 House Democrats and Republicans called on Biden to share the text of any deal to reinstate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Congress before signing it.

They specifically expressed concerns with the potential rollback of sanctions on Iran to stem the state’s ability to fund terrorist activities against the U.S. and its allies. A recent report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies says the latest data available shows the current proposal will mean a $274 billion windfall for the Islamic Republic of Iran in its first year of implementation, and upwards of $1 trillion for the regime by 2030.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to perpetrators of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights and cruel regimes that endanger both their people and Americans. We urge you and your administration to carefully consider this matter of national security and to use your authorities under the INA to deny Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation entry into the United States,” the letter concludes.

The White House referred Fox News Digital to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-urge-biden-deny-iranian-president-entry-gross-violations-rights

France 24     |     8/28/2022

Washington (AFP) – An exile group announced a New York lawsuit against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Thursday, challenging US authorities to take action against him as he is expected to arrive next month for the UN General Assembly.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran said the suit accused Raisi of torture and murder in a 1988 crackdown on Iranian dissidents.

Echoing similar complaints filed in England and Scotland, the civil lawsuit says that in 1988 Raisi was a member of the so-called “death commission,” four judges who directly ordered thousands of executions as well as torture of members of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, known as the MEK.

The MEK is the largest partner of the NCRI.

It is “beyond doubt that as deputy state prosecutor for Tehran province, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of that death commission,” Steven Schneebaum, the lead attorney in the lawsuit, said in a Washington press conference organized by the NCRI.

The suit was filed in federal court in New York last week in the names of two people tortured at the time and a third person whose brother was executed.

It cites Amnesty International and US sanctions declarations that accuse Raisi of complicity in the 1988 events.

The suit asks for unspecified damages for torture, extrajudicial killings, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The suit challenges the belief that Raisi, who was elected president last year, enjoys immunity under US law as a head of state and also an official foreign representative attending the United Nations annual general meeting at the UN headquarters in New York.

Schneebaum said that, for one, Raisi is not a diplomat officially accredited to the United Nations.

Secondly, he said, while Raisi is president, the real head of state of Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Raisi is not a diplomat… and is not eligible for the privileges extended under the Vienna Convention. Nor is he in fact a head of state,” Schneebaum said.

If US authorities accept those arguments, they could serve Raisi with a warrant if he attends the UN meetings beginning September 13.

That would require him to submit a plea withing 21 days, said Schneebaum.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a questions on its view of Raisi’s status.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220825-iran-exiles-sue-president-raisi-in-us-ahead-of-un-meet

Boston Herald     |     Dr. Kazem Kazerounian     |     June 25, 2022
Kazerounian: To support Iran’s people, engage with the Iranian Resistance

https://twitter.com/Maryam_Rajavi/status/1540068695384399872
In his recent trip to Albania, former Vice President Mike Pence showed world leaders and politicians how they can play a leading role in supporting the people of Iran in their struggle for freedom and democracy. Mr. Pence visited Ashraf 3, the main headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the longest-standing and most organized opposition to the tyrannical regime ruling Iran.

The visit comes as Iran is on the verge of a monumental change. People from all walks of life are in the streets every day, protesting economic woes, government corruption and suppression of freedoms. Teachers, workers, pensioners, government employees, oil and gas sector workers and many other segments of society are regularly holding protest rallies. The protests are marked with slogans that call for the ouster of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his appointed president Ebrahim Raisi.

These protests, which are taking place despite severe security measures by the regime, symbolize what the Iranian nation has gone through in the past four decades. After the 1979 revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini seized control and established a tyrannical theocracy that brutally massacred dissidents, squandered the country’s wealth on developing weapons of mass destruction and waging war on neighboring countries, and exported terrorism across the globe. For the people of Iran, who had overthrown the Shah dictatorship to live in freedom and prosperity, the mullahs’ rule was a betrayal of their aspirations and the sacrifices they made in the 1979 revolution. Today, the mullahs’ regime is the greatest enemy of the Iranian people and one of the biggest global threats.

During their reign of terror, the mullahs have executed more than 120,000 MEK members and supporters, including 30,000 political prisoners who were mass-executed in 1988. Raisi, who is now the regime’s president, was one of the key players in that brutal massacre of political prisoners. I was one of the MEK supporters who managed to escape the regime’s security apparatus and find refuge in the U.S., where I am currently a professor and dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut.

Despite the regime’s brutal crackdown, the MEK has stood against the dictatorship of the mullahs and defended the rights of the Iranian people. Its sources inside the country were the first to expose the regime’s nuclear weapons program in 2002. The MEK has consistently provided information about the regime’s illicit nuclear sites, its terrorist network and its human rights abuses. The Resistance Units, a network affiliated with the MEK, is the most expansive network of organized anti-regime activists inside Iran and they are constantly carrying out activities to prevent the regime’s repression from snuffling the fire of protests inside Iran.

Today, the confrontation between the Iranian people and the regime is at its highest point. On the one side is a regime symbolized by Ebrahim Raisi, whom the Iranian people have nicknamed “the butcher of 1988,” and on the other are 80 million people who want to enjoy basic freedoms and live decent lives.

In the past, U.S. administrations have mostly stood on the sidelines, remained silent, or sided with the regime when the people held nationwide protests. This is the time to stand with the people of Iran.

Mr. Pence showed how the international community could do this. In his visit to Ashraf 3, Mr. Pence also met with Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of opposition forces that includes the MEK. The NCRI has a platform that calls for the establishment of a democratic state, which gives equal opportunities to all Iranians regardless of their gender, ethnicity and religion; which denounces terrorism and is at peace with its neighbors; which does not need a nuclear weapons program; and which is a contributor to peace and security across the globe. This is what the people of Iran and the world want.

As Mr. Pence said in his speech to MEK members in Ashraf 3, “One of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold the world is that there is no alternative to the status quo. But there is an alternative – a well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative. … Your Resistance Units, commitment to democracy, human rights and freedom for every citizen of Iran. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten Point Plan for the future of Iran will ensure freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the freedom for every Iranian to choose their elected leaders. It’s a foundation on which to build the future of Iran.”

Dr. Kazem Kazerounian currently serves as dean and a professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/06/25/kazerounian-to-support-irans-people-engage-with-the-iranian-resistance/amp/

NCRI Staff Writer     |     16th May 2022

Today, marking the sixth day of the nationwide uprising in Iran where people from various provinces have taken to the streets calling for regime change and democracy, the 70th United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid a visit to Ashraf 3, home to thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in Mainz, Albania.

After meeting with Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mr. Pompeo visited the Ashraf 3 museum where the history and evidence of 120 years long resistance of the Iranian people throughout the rule of three dictators in Iran was demonstrated.

Ashraf-3, Albania, May 16, 2022 – Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and Secretary Michael Pompeo meeting in Ashraf 3, home to thousands of member of the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), in Manëz, Albania.

Following the visit, Ms. Rajavi and Mr. Pompeo attended a meeting with residents of Ashraf 3 and members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MEK/PMOI), of whom a thousand were victims and former prisoners of both the monarchial as well as the clerical regime.

Addressing the members of the MEK, Mr. Pompeo stated: “I’d also like to recognize President-elect Maryam Rajavi.  Under her leadership, the National Council of Resistance of Iran is laying the groundwork for a free, sovereign, and democratic republic in Iran.”

“A serious missing factor in U.S. policy towards Iran has been the lack of political support for the organized opposition, Mr. Pompeo added. “The regime in Tehran went to the extreme to massacre 30,000 political prisoners, whose main targets and a majority of victims were the MEK. The threat of attack extends far beyond Iran’s borders, with the regime having waged terror plots in Europe and the U.S. against the leaders of this movement. Now, to correct the Iran policy, no matter who is in the White House, it is a necessity for the U.S. administration to reach out to the Iranian Resistance and take advantage of its tremendous capabilities. Ashraf 3 is one such place to focus on.”

Secretary Pompeo also said: “Ebrahim Raisi, the butcher who orchestrated the 1988 massacre, is now President… The turnout was the lowest since 1979, marking a total rejection of the regime and its candidate.  It was, in fact, a boycott of the regime – and the regime knows it.  The regime is clearly at its weakest point in decades.”

“Raisi has already failed. He has failed to crush uprisings in Iran or break the noble spirit of dissent within the Iranian people,” he further elaborated.

Calling to hold Ebrahim Raisi accountable for his crimes against humanity back in 1988, Mr. Pompeo stated: “We must continue to support the Iranian people as they fight for a freer and more democratic Iran in any way we can. There is so much good work that American civil society can do to further this goal.  It is the work your organization is actively engaged in.”

“In the end, the Iranian people will have a secular, democratic, non-nuclear Republic. I pray that this day will come soon and with the support of Iranians living all around the world – and those who resist from within — that day will come sooner.  I am committed to this cause; I know you all are too,” he concluded.

Welcoming and expressing her gratitude to the Secretary Pompeo, Ms. Rajavi emphasized the determination of the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people to fight and bring an end to forty-three years of tyranny, discrimination, and corruption of the mullahs’ regime in their country.

Ms. Rajavi stated: “For a while, the mullahs tried to portray Iraq as the enemy. Then, they tried to portray the United States as the enemy. But the people of Iran and the MEK say that our enemy is in Iran. The mullahs said the MEK were terrorists, a cult, and the enemies of God. They claimed the MEK did not have any base of support in Iran. There are many similar and baseless allegations.”

Ashraf-3, Albania, May 16, 2022 – Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and Secretary Michael Pompeo standing in front of a map of Iran in the Museum of “120 Years of Struggle for Freedom in Iran” in Ashraf 3 home to thousands of members of the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK) in Manëz, Albania.

“Yes, by glancing at the objective conditions and the successive eruption of uprisings in Iran, today one can see that regime change is on the horizon,” Ms. Rajavis stated. “The people of Iran have already decided to engage in the final confrontation with the regime… The Shah resorted to mass killings and martial law in the final months of his rule, but it had the opposite effect. Likewise, Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi, an executioner implicated in the massacre of political prisoners, as his regime’s president, to close ranks in the face of the uprisings and save his regime.”

In the end, the NCRI president-elect reiterated the Iranian Resistance statements and said: “Today, we warn again that one should not delay. We say that we can and must free Iran, the Middle East, and the world of the evil of the nuclear mullahs.

• First, by imposing comprehensive sanctions and international isolation of the religious dictatorship. The mullahs’ regime should be placed under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
• Second, by referring the dossier of human rights abuses in Iran and the clerical regime’s terrorism to the UN Security Council, particularly the files on the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 and the killing of 1,500 during the November 2019 uprising.
• Third, by recognizing the struggle of Iran’s rebellious youths against the IRGC and the struggle of the entire Iranian nation to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.
• And finally, as you said, “In the end, the Iranian people will have a secular, democratic, non-nuclear Republic.”

https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/maryam-rajavi/mike-pompeo-meets-with-ncris-maryam-rajavi-in-ashraf-3-albania/

“I want the administration to understand that no deal is better than a bad deal,” he said.

Politico     |     By DAVID COHEN     |     05/01/2022

Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed doubt Sunday that ongoing talks with Iran would deliver a viable deal on nuclear weapons.

“I want the administration to understand that no deal is better than a bad deal,” Menendez (D-N.J.) told host Bret Baier on “Fox News Sunday.”

Menendez said he was dubious about the current talks because they have lasted so long that some provisions of the original agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, were about to end anyway, and others were getting close to that point.

“From my perspective, unless there are other elements of the deal, that would not be a good deal,” he said.

Opposition to an agreement would not be inconsistent with Menendez’s prior stances. In August 2015, he announced his opposition to the original deal: “This deal is based on ‘hope.’ Hope is part of human nature, but unfortunately it is not a national security strategy.”

In May 2018, then-President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing from the “decaying and rotten” agreement, which also included Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the European Union. The U.S. withdrawal left the deal more or less in limbo, with the Trump administration pushing Iran to adhere to the terms of the agreement even though they were no longer reaping any of its benefits.

Trump said he was going to renegotiate the deal, something that President Joe Biden’s administration has been attempting to do in talks in Vienna.

Menendez said that it does remain essential to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

“We are all in agreement that Iran cannot be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon. It will change the entire nature of the region,” Menendez said, citing the risk to Israel’s security and the likelihood of an arms race.

He added: “We have to stop, yes, Iran’s proliferation and missiles, and we also have to stop their pathway to a nuclear weapon.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/01/menendez-iran-nuclear-weapons-deal-00029168