As the calendar turned page to a new day, precisely to October 29, 2015, the night’s silence was pierced by one, two, three, …. ten, twenty, eighty missiles, puncturing the earth with the intention of replacing it with a desolate monster of destruction. The earth’s core was shaken by this monster, giving up to its annihilation. But there were some who confronted this monster with all their existence, with their lives in hand they mocked this sham giant and defeated it. Nayyereh Rabii was one of those conquering heroes.
You could never see her without her beautiful smile; a smile of eternal tranquility which brought reassurance to her companions, because she had found purpose despite all the adversities and obstacles thrown her way.
Nayyereh Rabii was from the village of Shah Abad Farahan in Arak. She was a woman who passionately advocated for the freedom of her people, because she had first-hand experience of the pain, poverty, and a double pressure on women and hence she had decided to overcome them all.
After completing her diploma in 1987 and having gone through many barriers and hardships that a misogynist society imposes on young girls, Nayyereh Rabii realized her biggest dream of joining the Resistance and crossed the border to arrive at Ashraf.
She began training alongside her comrades in Ashraf and increasingly gained responsibilities while fulfilling her duties with remarkable vigor. Her companions describe her as a selfless person who engaged in every activity with so much love that was difficult to comprehend. Nayyereh genuinely carried PMOI[1] values of altruism and anonymity in her daily activities.
Years of perseverance passed by with all their difficulties and the day came when Ashraf residents were transferred to a place called Camp Liberty.
Nayyereh Rabii was one of the first people to go to Liberty. Together with her PMOI/MEK comrades, they worked hard to transform an unsanitary rocky land without electricity and running water, and a concentration camp designed to exert further pressure on PMOI/MEK freedom fighters, into a place with significantly improved living conditions prepared to receive the rest of Ashraf residents.
Many of the seedlings at Liberty, symbolizing the Mojahedin’s passion and love of life, were sown by the hands of Nayyereh.
Perseverance in the difficult times reached the ultimate peak of determination and altruism, and Nayyereh, as a member of the PMOI Central Council, and as patient and resilient as the Sun, was an excellent role model, idol, and representative of a generation of women who refuse helplessness and incapability, removing all obstacles from their paths.
The night of October 29 arrived with a heavy dullness. The missile attack by Khamenei’s mercenaries broke the silence of the night at Liberty and started a bloodshed of “Ashrafi Mojaheds.” Nayyereh Rabii was martyred along with 23 other PMOI freedom fighters during this terrorist attack. Her pure blood became yet another justification of her resistance and a lifetime dedication to a struggle against the theocratic dictatorial regime ruling Iran.
[1] PMOI is abbreviation for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the best organized and main opposition force seeking to overthrow the ruling clerical regime and replace it with a democratic, non-nuclear republic based on separation of religion and state, the rule of law, and gender equality.