wikipediaBerlino, 7 Marzo 2015
Madam Maryam Rajavi,
Distinguished guest of this great gathering,
Dear friends of Camp Liberty,
Women and man who have been guaranteed their full security by the United Nations and the United States in the most formal way, let me say that what is happening now in Baghdad requires immediate measures for your defence and protection. The very least that should be done it is to allow you to re-obtain the stock of personal weapons that already was in your possession.
The 2015 International Women’s Day comes at the very critical moment for our societies and our cultures.
In a way never experienced before in modern times, two different but equally dangerous breeds of fundamentalists are challenging the very foundations of a peaceful and secure global order.
They make every effort in showing absolute disregard for even the most elementary notion of humanity. They terrorize entire population with the most horrible executions, tortures, kidnappings, brutal punishments , stoning, chopping limbs and hands, suppression of religious and political freedoms .
A vast international coalition is presently engaged in a crucial battle against the Islamic State. But we can only win that battle if there is a final victory for freedom and democracy in Iran.
An effective response to Sunni and Shia Jihadism can only emerge from the Muslim world itself.
Those who embrace a tolerant, pluralistic, democratic vision for their societies must take the lead. A conviction deeply rooted in Masoud Rajavi political and moral teaching.
Already in 1983, in a period of extreme violence for the Iranian Theocratic revolution, and repression against all political opponents, Masoud Rajavi described Islam with these prophetic words:” A particular characteristic of the Islam we believe in is its democratic nature. This Islam recognizes the rights of other religions, opinions and schools of thoughts”.
Madame Rajavi is admirably leading and sustaining the huge PMOI efforts to affirm religious freedom, separation of state and religion, gender equality in Iran and in the whole Muslim world.
If the Islamic fundamentalism is a common challenge for western and Muslim societies, increased awareness should be raised on the need to stop both Sunni and Shia extremist who march to conquer, subjugate, and terrorize entire populations in Syria, Iraq, Yemen.
The outstanding leadership of PMOI by Madam Rajavi, her immediate, unequivocal condamnation of terrorist attacks in Paris in the name of the Prophet, her courage in defending human values give a special strength to the Celebration of the International Women’s Day.
A Day when our thoughts and prayers should be addressed first and foremost to the women, members of the PMOI, who have been killed or atrociously left without any medical assistance in Camp Liberty and Camp Ashraf.
On this International Women’s Day our thoughts and prayers should go to those, like Neda Agha-Soltan, who was ferociously killed only because she dared to demonstrate against a fake presidential election. Or those like Reyhaneh Jabbari, hanged only because she wanted to protect her dignity as a woman and as a human being. It is their courage and their integrity that we must especially honour today.
On this occasion so important for the Memory of those who have campaigned for women rights in Iran, let me recall an Italian writer whose foresight and commitment was second to none, Oriana Fallaci.
Very soon Oriana became extremely worried by the Iranian Revolution and by Khomeini’s interpretation of Islam. She missed no opportunity in denouncing the dangerous radicalism which had replaced the initial thrust towards a democratic Iran. Her words still resound.
“We must take positions. Our weakness in the West is born on the fact of so-called objectivity. Objectivity does not exist. The word is hypocrisy. Sometimes truth stays on one side only. The moment you give up your principles, and your value, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period.”
Oriana encounter with Ayatollah Khomeyni still remains as a formidable example of unconventional journalism and a moment of truth.
Fallaci had travelled to Qum and waited ten days before Khomeini received her. Following journalism given to her by the new regime, she arrived at the Ayatollah’s home barefoot and wrapped in a chador. Immediately she unleashed a barrage of questions. About the closing of opposition newspapers, the mistreatment of the Iran’s Kurdish minority, the multitude of summary executions by the regime. As Khomeyni answered that some of the persons killed deserved it because they had been brutal servants of the Shah, Oriana doubled the questions : “Is it right to shoot a poor prostitute or a woman unfaithful to her husband or a man who loves another man? “The Ayatollah was remorseless: “What brings corruption – he said- must be pulled up like the weeds that infest a field of wheat”. Oriana continued posing indignant questions about the treatment of women in the new Islamic State and Khomeini replied that the women who contributed to the revolution were not like Fallaci, “who go around uncovered dragging behind them a tail of men”. It was at that point that she yanked off her chador. That was freedom of expression and quest of truth for Oriana Fallaci, a great and free woman of our time.
