By Jubin Katiraie
Iranian Resistance group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has long been painted by Iranian Mullahs as a fringe group with little support from the Iranian people, but the Iranian uprising proves that to be false.
In December 2017, protests broke out in Mashhad over a draft budget that slashed subsidies for the poor and put more funding into Iran’s suppressive forces and malign military campaigns. At any other time, the Mullahs’ government might have quelled this protest, but the MEK stepped in to spread the protests across 142 cities in all of Iran’s provinces.
Crackdown
So far, the mullahs have shot 50 protesters dead in the streets and arrested over 8,000 people. The majority of the detained have been threatened with the death penalty, while some have been tortured to death in prison. Given that these people came out in protest after the MEK’s call, it’s not unreasonable to determine that they are MEK members or supporters.
Even the Political Affairs Deputy for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Brig. Gen. Rasoul Sanai, admits it.
He said: “The leaders and those inciting the protests in this city were from the [MEK]… These were the MEK who would go to the cities in an organized fashion and were guiding the slogans… Directing attacks on military centres, like assaults on the State Security Force and Basij bases were part of the planning by the MEK. They even attacked the prisons, which means they have their hands in prisons as well.”
The Iranian people and the MEK have continued the uprising in spite of the government brutal crackdown, with hundreds of protests or acts of civil disobedience occurring every day. They continue to protest because the freedom of Iran is more important to them than their own lives.
The MEK is key to protests
It is clear from these uprisings, which even the government admit have been directed by the MEK, that the MEK is incredibly popular among the Iranian people. After all, a fringe group with little support couldn’t sustain an uprising, could they?
Government criminalised the MEK in the 1980s in order to quell support for the opposition group that could well have overthrown them then. This has not worked and now the Mullahs are forced to admit the MEK’s role in the ongoing protests.
Of course, the Mullahs won’t admit that the MEK is beloved and widely supported; that would only highlight how the Iranian Mullahs are neither. But still they can see that the Iranian people and the MEK want to topple Mullahs and they are both willing to do whatever it takes.
The MEK is truly the party of the Iranian people and soon they will help usher Iran into a new era, free from the mullahs. These are the last days of the Iranian dictators and soon they will be overthrown in favour of a democratic government.
This will be the overarching theme of the Free Iran Gathering in Paris on June 30, where 100,000 MEK supporters will gather to support the MEK and the Iranian people.
