Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran and is married to #Massoud Rajavi. She has a daughter (born in 1982) and a degree in metallurgical engineering. Mrs. #Rajavi became acquainted with the anti-#shah movement in 1970. After entering Sharif University of Technology in Tehran to pursue her education, she quickly became a leader of the student movement and joined the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, the #Muslim, democratic and nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of a secular government in #Iran. The #shah’s regime executed one of her sisters, #Narges, and the #Khomeini regime murdered another, #Massoumeh, who was pregnant at the time, along with the sister’s husband.
Mrs. #Rajavi played a decisive role in organizing two major peaceful demonstrations in #Tehran in April and June of 1981 against the new dictatorship. Following June 20, 1981, #Khomeini unleashed his pervasive terror on #Iranians. Tens of thousands were arbitrarily arrested or executed. During this period, the #Pasdaran (the Revolutionary Guards Corps) raided her places of residence several times, but she managed to survive these encounters.
In 1982, Mrs. #Rajavi was transferred to #Paris, the political headquarters of the movement. She rose rapidly through the ranks and emerged as the most capable and qualified woman member of the movement. She was eventually elected as the #Mojahedin’s joint leader in 1985 and four years later, in 1989, became the Secretary General of the organization.
Following the formation of the Resistance’s military arm, the National Liberation Army (#NLA), in 1987, she was appointed the army’s Deputy Commander in Chief, playing an instrumental role in transforming the NLA into a well-trained, modern and mechanized military force.
She subsequently resigned from her posts in the Mojahedin and the #NLA to devote her entire time to her new responsibility. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. #Rajavi went to Paris to lead the Resistance's endeavors on the international scene.
In her new role as the #President, she quickly presented a formidable and serious political, social, cultural and ideological challenge to the ruling clerics.
Under her leadership, women have attained key positions within the ranks of the #Resistance. Women comprise half the members in the #NCRI. They occupy the most senior positions of responsibility in political, international and military arenas in the #Resistance. One-third of the #NLA’s combatants and many of its commanders are women, as is the entire Leadership Council of the Mojahedin.
Mrs. #Rajavi’s election gave the oppressed and demoralized citizenry, especially women, new hopes for a better future. Equally profound and inspiring was the impact of her election among #Iranians living abroad. Many delegations from the four-million-strong Iranian exile community, consisting of the most educated and skilled sectors of the society, rushed to meet Mrs. #Rajavi in #Paris.
Mrs. #Rajavi says: "I have dedicated my life to a better future for the people of #Iran. I want to prove that as a democratic alternative for society, #Islam is not aggressive and can be quite constructive for women. This sense of responsibility gives me inner calm and the feeling of genuine freedom... After the Mullahs are overthrown, we must try, before all else, to eliminate the sense of vengeance and hatred among our people. We must create unity and expand the notion of tolerance in society. It is our responsibility to revive the Iranian people's identity and values."
Mrs. #Rajavi also paid special attention to Iranian art and culture, two rich and deeply invaluable features of the #Iranian history, which the mullahs have adamantly tried to pervert.
Under her direction, #Iranian artists and musicians, forced into exile, stepped forward and began performing to revive #Iran’s arts and culture.
Article 14 of the platform stipulated that in the future of Iran, a free market, private ownership and investment to expand the national economy will be guaranteed. The foreign policy of a democratic Iran, Mrs. #Rajavi affirmed, will advocate peace, coexistence, regional and international cooperation.
Mrs. #Rajavi says that one cannot fight fundamentalism with an anti-Islamic culture. The only way to confront it is to offer a modern and lenient #Islam. In promoting this interpretation of Islam, the #Iranian #Resistance has presented a modern and tolerant visage of #Islam and rejected the mullahs' savagery cloaked in religion.
She says: "Let me proclaim that the peddlers of religion who rule Iran in the name of #Islam, but shed blood, suppress the people and advocate export of fundamentalism and terrorism, are themselves the worst enemy of #Islam and #Muslims. The day will come when they will be forced to let go of the name of #Islam.”
She said: "These reactionaries who suppress the Iranian people, especially women, and export terrorism and fundamentalism under the cloak of religion, have nothing to do with Islam. They are peddlers of religion and exploit the name of #Islam to advance their sinister, inhuman objectives. #Islam is the religion of peace, freedom, liberty, equality, love, mercy and liberation. The Mullahs' fundamentalist mindset, however, rests upon vengeance, enmity and ignorance and is at war with human values and world peace.
