Democracy and Human Rights

Iran: People’s Struggle for Liberty, Democracy, Women’s Rights

The Iranian regime is the primary supporter of international terrorism in the world and continues to commit gross human rights violations. Its widespread abuses are evident in the violent crackdown of peaceful, anti-regime demonstrations in 2009, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The resilience of the Iranian people in the face of the theocracy’s brutality, especially since the June 12, 2009 uprising, has inspired not only Iranians, but all in the global community who share their desire for “universal” values of freedom, justice, and democracy. The resistance of women, youth, and students in Iran and the people’s desire for change is rooted in over a century of struggle for democracy.

The ongoing protests across Iran and the escalating international sanctions are a sign of rapid disintegration of the ruling theocracy in Iran and the start of irreversible changes in favor of democratic solutions for Iran.

Voice for Liberty

The Iranian people have, for the past four decades, endured unspeakable torture, massacres, imprisonment, and economic disasters, all of which have been brought about by the ruling tyrannical regime. The world remembers how young Iranians have risen up since 2009 till now (2019) to demand regime change, but have been brutally murdered or injured by the regime’s forces in the streets and in the prisons of Tehran and other cities. The clerical regime’s abysmal human rights record has been strongly denounced over 65 times by various United Nations bodies. Not a day goes by in Iran without someone being executed, tortured, murdered or imprisoned for political reasons. Iran under the mullahs is the number one per capita executioner and the foremost executor of children in the world. It is also the world’s biggest prison of journalists, according to human rights bodies. Through their vast censorship, the clerical rulers try their utmost to keep genuine information from getting in and out of Iran.

But the tide of the mullahs’ destruction surpasses the boundaries of Iran. The regime’s nuclear program, albeit limited by the recent nuclear deal with world powers, and its growing terrorist threats have targeted people all over the world. Terrorist attacks from Azerbaijan to Thailand to India and African countries have been linked to the regime’s terrorist entities. Meanwhile, Iranian regime proxies have left a trail of blood and destruction in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, killing thousands of innocent civilians. The regime’s terrorism tentacles have even reached the shores of the United States, with their agents planning to assassinate foreign ambassadors and to explode bombs in the heart of Washington, D.C. In 2019, the regime threatened maritime security by endangering ships passing through one of the world’s major waterways in the Strait of Hormuz. And, in September 2019, it was revealed that it launched missiles into Saudi Arabia, causing major damage to that country’s oil infrastructure.

Some 3,400 brave Iranians, who used to reside in Camp Liberty in Iraq until their resettlement in Europe, including 2,200 residents whom Albania welcomed in September 2016, were subjected to numerous attacks and endured three brutal massacres by the regime and its Iraqi proxies, in the course of which over 141 innocent people died and more than 1,400 were injured. These residents, 1,000 of them women, and a third of them former political prisoners, are an inspiration to Iranian youth and women seeking democratic change in Iran. They are also a role model for democratic activists across the Middle East.

These courageous activists and the oppressed nation of Iran need to be heard. Information about them should not be dictated by a tyrannical system seeking to subjugate them for eternity. To this end, seminars, conferences and workshops will be organized and a wide range of publications will be utilized to get the message out.

Most tellingly, the Iranian regime shows profound animosity and trepidation towards the opposition satellite TV channel, Iranian National Television or “Simay-e Azadi” (www.iranntv.com). INTV broadcasts the message of hope and freedom for the Iranian people and presents them with accurate and extensive information not only about the regime’s misdeeds, but also about the support people in other parts of the world have voiced for the Iranian people. INTV regularly reports on the extensive publications and international conferences that educate people about democracy and allow the Iranian society to know that they are not alone in their struggle for democracy. They present the image of an alternative Iran, with a brighter future, one that would see a free, secular and economically prosperous nation that is at peace with its neighbors and is free of nuclear weapons. Many prominent lawmakers, human rights activists, religious leaders, and internationally known political and cultural personalities speak at these events held around the world.

This explains why the regime has considerably expanded its efforts to jam the signals of the popular satellite TV channel to prevent it from being watched in Iranian living rooms. In this light, it is critical that all of us join hands and do whatever necessary to keep the free flow of information in and out of Iran by enabling and assisting what has now emerged as the most objective and impartial source of news and information about Iran.

Please help to:

• Purchase satellite time to educate the public about Iran’s threats
• Enable Iranians to inform the free world of their will for democratic change in Iran
• Provide the Iranian youth with the tools to disseminate news about the dictators in Iran
• Organize symposiums, briefings and conventions to give voice to Iranian dissidents
• Support for Simay-e Azadi Satellite Television network

…I remember when I was about 7 years old, we watched INTV in Tehran, Iran. INTV at that time broadcast only 2 hours of programming from 21:00 to 23:00 in the evening. My brother,  my parents and I tried every day to finish our work before that time so that we could watch the programs. Of course we hid our satellite dish, otherwise the Iranian regime could find out and my parents could be arrested. We loved INTV because the mullahs had made Iran into a big prison. When you find even a small sign of hope out of this prison, it becomes everything for you. The INTV which is the vision of freedom and the Iranian resistance and the hope of people of Iran is playing that role….

— Siavosh Rajizadeh, law student and a human rights activist in the Netherlands