Linda Chavez – Former White House Director of Public Liaison
This is a tragedy; this is tragedy of huge proportions. There were rockets fired, 40 rockets fired into Camp Liberty after the government of Iraq and, I must say, after the government of the United States promised that if those living in Camp Ashraf would only move to Camp Liberty they would be protected, they would be resettled and they would have their freedom. Those promises have not only been broken, they have been broken with blood on the hands of those who made those promises.
It is an honor to be with you today.
The situation today that we are here to ad¬dress has to do with one of the most fun¬damental rights, the right of women to dig¬nity and to equality. And as I do not need to tell you, for more than 30 years, those rights have been violated by the regime in Iran. Women are denied the most basic human rights, they are denied all of those things that give them human dignity because of a mi¬sogynistic regime that has ruled against the people in Iran for more than three decades.
And yet despite this suffering the women of Iran have remained strong and have re¬mained a force for good, for freedom and for the desire to be able to rule over their own lives within Iran. They have pursued not only gender equality but freedom and democ¬racy not just for them¬selves but for all who live in Iran.
They have demonstrated in the streets of Tehran and they have been at the forefront of those in Iran who have sought their freedom and to be brought from out, from under the brutal dic¬tatorial regime that has ruled there by force for more than three decades. But equality for the women of Iran and for the people of Iran will not come incrementally, it will not be won simply by pressure from the west, it will not be won simply because of negotiations with a regime. It will only be won by regime change in Tehran. The regime in Iran is not only a threat to the women of Iran, it is not only a threat to the people of Iran, it is a threat to world peace and all freedom-loving people in the world.
There is a movement and one leader who rep¬resent the possibility for that change in Iran and that woman is Madam Maryam Rajavi. She has proved with a record of resistance and a re¬cord of speaking out against what is happening in her country.
She has been able to articulate a new way for Iran, a way based on equality, that is based on the right of all persons to be able to elect their own leaders and to articulate the vi¬sion that true pluralism, true freedom, can not exist when there is not a separation between church and state. And she has done this, de¬spite the fact that she endangers herself, that she has put herself out there as a target of this vicious regime. She does this because she is a patriot, because she is a woman and because she is a devout Muslim. She is an inspiration to all women. She is an inspiration indeed to all freedom-loving people throughout the world.
Now make no mistake, the regime in Iran fears this movement, they fear Madam Rajavi. They fear you, who are gathered in this room. And if you doubt that they fear that you need look no further than the press announcements that came out of Iran just a few days ago from Fars, the news agency.
There they expressed their grave concern at this meeting, thousands of miles away, in Paris. They are threatened by the presence of all of you out there and most importantly by the presence of your leader. They are worried that not only will you inspire each other in this room to work harder for re¬gime change in Iran, they are most worried that the message will get into Iran about what you are trying to do and that you will inspire your fellow countrymen in Iran.
We must all devote ourselves to that re¬gime change. But there is something else that we must devote ourselves to and that is our brothers and sis¬ters who are suffering in Iraq in Camp Liberty and the remaining few in Ashraf. They have been a source of inspiration to freedom-lov¬ing Iranians around the world.
They are an inspiration to intimidate the regime that not only threatens them, but that threatens all of us. And because they are such a threat, the Iranian government, the regime in Tehran, has in fact ordered its proxies in Iraq to attack Camp Liberty. This is a tragedy; this is tragedy of huge proportions.
There were rockets fired, 40 rockets fired into Camp Liberty after the government of Iraq and, I must say, after the government of the United States promised that if those living in Camp Ashraf would only move to Camp Liberty they would be protect¬ed, they would be resettled and they would have their freedom. Those promises have not only been broken, they have been broken with blood on the hands of those who made those promises.
This is a humanitarian crisis and the only way that it can be solved is for the Unit¬ed Nations and for the United States to step in, to remove Martin Kobler, who has been an impediment to the correct refugee treatment of those who have suffered in Camp Liberty. To remove him – and to remove from Camp Liberty and return to Camp Ashraf the people who have suffered so long and who have paid with their blood for their own freedom.
We cannot let stand that more than 3000 people are being kept as if they are members of a con¬centration camp in Iraq, to be attacked, to be injured and to be murdered. We cannot stand and we must all pressure the United States and the American government, who made its promises to protect these people, and unless that happens our job will not be done here.
I want to thank you very much, but you did not come here to hear me, you came here to hear your leader. She is a women who in¬spires all of us, she is a woman of tremen¬dous bravery, and she is to be congratu¬lated on the publication of her new book: Les femmes contre l’intregrisme. She is a women who all of you know, Madam Rajavi.
We cannot let stand that more than 3000 people are being kept as if they are members of a concentration camp in Iraq, to be attacked, to be injured and to be murdered.
