By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
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MEK Resistance Units and the power of Iran’s democratic alternative
As part of the Free Iran 2022 campaign, 5,000 members of Resistance Units sent video messages, supporting the Iranian opposition’s yearly convention and reiterating their resolve to overthrow the theocratic rule of the mullahs in Iran.
Messages came from every corner of Iran, and they had a common theme, “We can and we must,” a slogan that was popularized by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
“We can and we must break the chains of despair.”
“We can and we must free our country from the clutches of the mullahs.”
“We can and we must overthrow the mullahs’ regime.”
“We can and we must build a free and prosperous Iran.”
“We can and we must celebrate freedom.”
The resistance units held up photos of Mrs. Rajavi, who has become a symbol of hope and freedom for millions of people who are fed up under the tyrannical rule of the mullahs.
The Resistance Units are a network of activists associated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the one organization that has been the absolute red line of the mullahs’ regime in the past four decades. The regime has executed more than 120,000 members and supporters of the MEK since the 1980s, including a mass killing of 30,000 political prisoners during the summer of 1988, which marks its 34th anniversary these days.
Ebrahim Raisi, one of the key figures of the 1988 massacre, has been the regime’s president since August 2021. During his presidency, Raisi has ramped up executions, ratcheted up repressive measures, and engaged in a massive campaign to suppress MEK supporters and intimidate the public. Political prisoners with ties with the MEK are given the harshest sentences and treatments.
Added to these efforts is a massive propaganda campaign by the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to demonize and discredit the MEK and to promote movements that have not substantive organization or presence inside Iran.
However, in their messages to the Free Iran 2022 campaign, the Resistance Units proved that despite the regime’s massive efforts, they are growing stronger, more resolute, and more organized.
This growth has also shown itself in the expansive efforts that the MEK Resistance Units have led in the past year, especially since Raisi, notoriously known as the “butcher of 1988,” became the regime’s president.
Not a day goes by without the Resistance Units making their presence known in the cities of Iran, broadcasting anti-regime slogans in public places, projecting large pictures of Iranian Resistance leaders on the walls of buildings in populous cities, and installing posters in different locations.
In tandem, the Resistance Units have taken great strides in targeting the digital infrastructure of the regime’s security, surveillance and propaganda apparatus inside the country, taking over the broadcasting units, servers, websites, and the security cameras of several important regime organs in different parts of the country, especially in the capital, Tehran.
The expansion of the Resistance Units, exemplified by the 5,000 video messages they sent to the Free Iran 2022 rally, is a reflection of the Iranian people’s will for change and the capacity of the resistance movement to bring freedom to Iran.
This article was first published by english.mojahedin
By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
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