NCRI Women’s Committee Annual Report 2023
Women’s leadership of the revolution did not happen overnight. It has deep roots in 44 years of struggle against the mullahs’ regime.
The Iranian people’s uprising was one of the world’s most significant events of the year 2022. In light of its importance, the NCRI Women’s Committee has devoted this year’s Annual Report to the various aspects of this democratic Revolution and women’s role in it.
Women are the force for change
Women’s bravery and leadership role was one of the most prominent features of the 2022 Iran uprising that inspired the world. But how did this come about?
Of course, it did not happen overnight. Women’s leading role in the uprising is deeply rooted in the Iranian women’s long history of struggle for their democratic rights, especially over the past 44 years.
Women played a significant role in the 1979 Revolution but saw their hard-won rights and freedoms increasingly restricted under the mullahs’ rule. They became the mullahs’ prime target since suppressing women was a mechanism to clamp down on the entire society in the name of religion.
However, Iranian women did not give in and defied the mullahs’ rule by paying a dear price. Many women joined the main opposition force, the PMOI/MEK. In the course of this struggle, women proved to be indispensable to the movement.
In the 1980s, thousands of PMOI women and girls walked to the altar or endured vicious torture but did not abandon their democratic cause and their belief in freedom and equality.
Women from all ages and all walks of life stood firm against the mullahs and gave their lives before firing squads or under torture. In the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, PMOI women stood their ground and did not yield to the mullahs.
Women rose to the organization’s leadership at such a high cost and took over the helm in 1985. Under Maryam Rajavi’s leadership, PMOI women have worked at all political leadership and decision-making levels for the past 37 years, leading the opposition movement through the most challenging conditions.
Today, the PMOI is led by a Central Council of 1,000 battle-tested women.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, believes that women are the force for change.
In a speech on June 21, 1996, in London, she addressed the mullahs and said, “You have done your utmost to humiliate, suppress, torture and slaughter Iranian women, but rest assured that you would receive the blow from the very force you discounted, the very force whom your reactionary mindset cannot allow you to take into consideration. Rest assured that these knowledgeable and free women would dismantle your oppression everywhere.”
The role of women in the vanguard opposition force has exerted its impact on women’s social struggles. The world saw Iranian women playing a more prominent role in the protests from 2009 to 2019, 2018, and 2022.
Under the mullahs’ misogynistic rule, women have turned into compressed coils, leaping forward when conditions allow.
Six months on, the uprising defies suppression efforts
Against such a backdrop, the cold-hearted murder of an innocent woman by the Morality Police set alight the powder keg of social discontent and economic grievances. It gave rise to conditions where women could play their courageous role in confronting the security forces and leading the movement.
Starting on 16 September 2022, the Iran uprising has entered its sixth month despite the regime’s brutal attempts to suppress it. The clerical regime’s security forces have killed at least 750 protesters, including 84 women and 70 children. They have arrested and detained around 30,000 protesters and subjected them to the most brutal tortures, including sexual assault and gang rapes.
The regime has also handed down death sentences for many detained protesters, including teenagers and juveniles, in unfair trials without legal representation. Some of these trials were held online and lasted less than five minutes without allowing the defendants to defend themselves. The regime has already executed six protesters.
Nevertheless, the protests continue, focused on a single slogan, “Death to Khamenei,” indicating the protesters’ desire for the regime’s overthrow. Protesters also chanted, “With Hijab or Without Hijab, let’s go for a revolution,” reflecting women’s demand for freedom of choice and unity against the religious dictatorship.
Another frequently chanted slogan is “Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the [mullahs’ supreme] leader,” indicating the people of Iran’s rejection of all forms of dictatorship and yearning for a democratic, pluralistic society founded on the separation of religion and state and gender equality.
Excessive brute force used to confront audacious students
Another prominent feature of the uprising was that college and high school students spearheaded it. An average of 100 universities across the country were scenes of protests by young women and men every day.
To quell the student protests, plainclothes agents opened fire on students, even on the university premises.
Plainclothes agents also abducted students from dormitories without legal warrants at midnight or in the early morning as they were leaving the building.
The security forces’ surrounding of Sharif University of Technology on October 2, trapping its students inside, is emblematic. They trapped students inside the parking lot of Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology and fired live ammunition, rounding up at least 60 students, according to semi-official media.
The arrested protesters were unyielding even inside prisons. To silence them, the regime launched an attack on Evin Prison on October 15, burning down the compound. Between 30 to 40 prisoners are believed to have died during the attack, and dozens more were badly wounded but were abandoned without medical care.
