Mrs. Rajavi said: Since coming to power in 1979, the clerics have set about eliminating women from social and political activity, and have endeavored to humiliate them as second-class citizens who embody weakness and corruption. Just weeks after the fall of the previous dictatorship, the mullahs tried to impose compulsory veiling, coining the slogan Òeither the veil or a hit on the head.Ó Women were officially banned from becoming the president, or a judge. MenÕs right to polygamy was recognized, while wo men were denied the right to divorce and the guardianship of their children. Last year, the mullahs issued circulars warning women against smiling, and attending soccer matches as spectators. In addition, women bear the brunt of the intolerable pressures brought to bear on the people as a result of the declining purchasing power of the rial and rising prices.
The Iranian Resistance's President-elect added: During these years, tens of thousands of women have been executed for political reasons, and many more have been subjected to the most vicious forms of torture, from pulling out their nails, burning and muti lating them, to torturing children in front of their mothers, to raping women before their children, parents and husbands. Iran has the highest number of political executions, particularly of women, of any country in the world. These inhuman pressures and the clampdown led in one year alone in but one province of Iran to 3,600 suicides, 2,500 of whom were women, according to the state-controlled dailies. Destitute women, forced into prostitution to support their families, are ruthlessly stoned to death be fore the eyes of their young children. Girl children and adolescents are sold by their families to make ends meet in the extreme living conditions of Iran.
Mrs. Rajavi stressed that not only do the mullahs perpetrate these crimes under the banner of Islam, but they are doing their utmost to extend their backward culture and atrocities against women by exporting its fundamentalism and terrorism to the Islami c world. Just as, today, they vigorously endeavor to portray the universality of human and women's rights as being contradictory to Islam.
The Resistance's President-elect added: As a Muslim Iranian woman, I declare that the view and conduct toward women of the religious despots ruling Iran are fundamentally contrary to the liberating teachings of Islam and the Quran. The mullahs ruling Iran are the worst enemies of Islam, the Quran, and the Prophet Muhammed. Islam, according to its great Prophet, is a religion of mercy, peace and equality. Islam is compatible with the principles of human rights and womenÕs liberties. It is, further, the bea con and inspiration to women in their quest for emancipation.
Mrs. Rajavi recalled: By virtue of these very teachings, in our Resistance movement, women in the Mojahedin Organization have taken the lead in the struggle for liberty, and have become the principal advocates of womenÕs rights vis-a-vis the Khomeini regi meÕs unbridled, savage retrogression. Although women are this regimeÕs primary victims, they are its principal opposition force as well. Half the members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, (NCR), the democratic opposition coalition, are women who hold top positions of responsibility in the just, nationwide Resistance of the Iranian people.
Referring to the NCR's Declaration on the Freedoms and Rights of Women, the Resistance's President-elect said: In tomorrow's Iran, women will enjoy the right to elect and be elected in all elections, and the right to suffrage in all referendums; the righ t to employment and free selection of profession; the right to hold any public or government position, office, or profession, including the presidency or judgeship in all judicial institutions; the right to free political and social activity, and travel w ithout the permission of another person.; absolute freedom of choice of spouse and marriage, and equal rights to divorce; the right to choose clothing and covering; and the right to participate in all athletic competitions and artistic activities. Polygam y is banned.
Noting that the mullahs' anti-human regime has been has been condemned in 35 resolutions adopted by the various United Nations organs, Mrs. Rajavi called upon the Conference to obviate any attempt by the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran to in fluence the conventions and conclusions ratified by the Fourth World Conference on Women and to prevent the criminals from exploiting Islam and Iranian culture.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris September 4, 1995
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