By Naser Faghihi, Iran Probe
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Iranian women in exile expressed their abhorrence over the recent aggressive measures targeting women and girls this New Year’s Eve in a number of European cities including Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg and cities in Finland and Poland. Muslims, refugees and pain-stricken asylum seekers from Syria, Iran and other countries must not be tainted for these evil and criminal measures, and this should also not lead to increasing pressures against them. They are prime victims of fundamentalists, extremists and terrorists in the Middle East.
While Iran claims to be an “Islamic republic”, the humiliating treatment of women propagated by the Iranian regime has nothing to do with Islam and actually has its roots in Islamic fundamentalism. The main tool used by this type of fundamentalism to control and quell the society is the crackdown against women.
Islamic fundamentalism rose to power in 1979 in Iran under Khomeini, and he injected this perspective throughout the Middle East using Iran’s vast oil revenue. This is why ISIS is of no serious concern for Iranian women as it has been nearly 40 years since they have been living under the control of the Iranian Mullahs described by the Iranian people as “Godfather of ISIS”. This is exactly why the most powerful Iranian opposition organization is led by Maryam Rajavi a woman advocating a tolerant Islam. The participation of women and their leadership role in the opposition is a major dilemma for the fundamentalist regime in Iran.
Ms. Parvin Firuzan, is a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) stationed in Camp Liberty, Iraq. Her life story is an example of crackdown against Iranian women. She is graduated in Russian language and due to her support for the PMOI she was placed under the most vicious treatment in Iran’s prisons for a period of ten years. Her younger brother was executed due to his opposition against the regime.
“We were together in one prison for seven years under the most atrocious conditions… she went to the brink of death many times and witnessed the wounded and mutilated bodies of her dear colleagues,” writes one of Parvin’s cellmates in an Iranian website.
After her release from prison Ms. Firuzan bravely departed Iran and joined the PMOI in Camp Ashraf in Iraq. To exit Iran she had no choice but to place her two-year old boy with other members of her family. Up to 2009 her son had the chance to visit her mother in Camp Ashraf. However, from that year on the Iraqi government banned any visits, including family members in Camp Ashraf. Her son has now left Iran and is living in London.
During the past few months websites linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), such as the “Nejat Society” active inside Iran; “Pejhvak Iran” stationed in Sweden and “Iran-Interlink” ran by Mr. Massoud Khodabandeh and his British wife Ann Singleton, have launched a major smearing campaign against Ms. Firuzan aimed at breaking her will.
Ms. Firuzan, who joined the PMOI due to her love for her nation and even separated from her husband 18 years ago for this cause, is now the target of bogus allegations raised by Iran’s MOIS about her being used by the PMOI, being brainwashed or else she would have ended her struggle against the mullahs, left her colleagues and would have joined her ex-husband in the United Kingdom. She has recently written a letter on 18 December 2015 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published on a number of websites.
“Websites linked to the Ministry of Intelligence have been posting articles and letters written by my ex-husband by the name of Ibrahim Mohammad Rahimi who I divorced 18 years ago and no longer have any relation with. He is writing texts against me that includes slander, claiming I am being held against my will in Camp Liberty, and has asked for a visit to see me… I am not a young woman to be deceived by anyone. I have chosen my path in life and love every moment of it. I am currently 53-years-old and have a bachelor’s degree, and I have experienced numerous hardships in life, enough to have an independent opinion of my own…”
The Iranian regime has in this campaign even included Ms. Firuzan’s son in Europe, who is an inexperienced 20-year-old man, to have him write texts and posts in MOIS-associated websites against his own mother, asking her to separate herself from the struggle against the rulers of Iran and leave the PMOI.
This is the same Islamic fundamentalism. After not being able to execute Ms. Parvin Firuzan like her brother, or keep her under its control in prison through physical torture, this time around the Iranian regime is seeking to break her will by placing her under bogus allegations and psychological torture.
