Norway Parliament Hosts Meeting in Solidarity with Iranian Resistance Movement
The Norway Parliament hosted a meeting in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and their organized Resistance movement.
The February 10, 2023 event featured several distinguished speakers, including the keynote speaker, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Mrs. Rajavi provided valuable insights into the current situation in Iran, while other notable attendees included former ministers, lawmakers, and politicians from Norway and other Nordic countries.
The speakers at the meeting at the Parliament of Norway included Messrs. Lars Rise, a former Member of Parliament from Norway; Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee; Arild Hermstad, the leader of the Norwegian Green Party; Morten Wold, a Member of the Parliament of Norway, Geir Haarde, the former Prime Minister of Iceland, Kimmo Sasi, former Finish MP and Minister of Transport and Communications, Eduard Julius Solnes, former Finish Minister of Environment, Former Norwegian MP Geir Sigbjørn Torskedal, Former Member of the European and Scotland’s parliaments, Struan Stevenson, and Parviz Khazaii, the NCRI representative to Nordic countries.
In addition to these esteemed guests, the conference also featured a speech by Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chair of the NCRI Women’s Committee. Her remarks shed light on women’s challenges in Iran and their important role in the Resistance movement.
Thank you for allowing me to speak at this important conference among Norwegian and Nordic friends.
Five months ago, with the murder of a young woman for the mullahs’ self-defined crime of mal-veiling, the people’s uprising in Iran was sparked in a society that had become a powder keg and ready to explode.
The whole world witnessed the role of brave Iranian women in this uprising against gender apartheid. But the reality is that this has not been a sudden phenomenon, and there is a history behind it.
As a matter of fact, women played a very important role in the 1979 revolution, which we are on the eve of its anniversary. But the mullahs who hijacked the leadership of the anti-monarchy revolution imposed the most vicious repression against them.
For the mullahs, the suppression of women was a mechanism to clamp down on the whole society in the name of religion.
Therefore, women joined our movement in large numbers from the first days because we had clear positions supporting women’s rights.
As a matter of fact, the issue of women’s status and equality has been a focal point in our Resistance in Iran for 37 years.
One of the main achievements of Iran’s main opposition PMOI/MEK was that a generation of women was trained to take the key responsibilities in our resistance movement. More than 50% of the members of the NCRI as the Resistance’s Parliament are women.
This background and history explain how today, the women of Iran are the driving force of the current uprising and lead it, as admitted by the regime itself.
The adoption of the NCRI plan on women’s rights and freedoms goes back 35 years.
Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, published for the first time in 2006, emphasizes “Complete gender equality in the realms of political, social, cultural, and economic rights, and equal participation of women in political leadership. Abolishment of any form of discrimination; the right to choose one’s own clothing freely; Prohibition of all forms of exploitation against women under any pretext.”
The NCRI plan on the separation of the religion and the state, which was adopted in 1985, stipulates that no citizen shall enjoy any privileges or be subject to any deprivations for the reason of belief or non-belief in a particular religion or faith.
Finally, there have always been many people with advanced ideas. Still, those who put advanced ideas into practice are few because doing this requires high human capacity, dedication, tolerance, and tireless efforts.
The goal of the regime is to tarnish the image of the democratic opposition and sell the lie that there is no valid alternative in Iran. Therefore the world must tolerate this dictatorship and work with it.
I have the honor of being a member of a resistance that has made many of such ideas a reality during the hard times of fighting against a brutal medieval regime, especially on the issue of women.