Marzieh Pournaghi was one of the 36 members of the PMOI/MEK who laid down their lives during an unequal confrontation in Ashraf, on April 8, 2011.
Marzieh Pournaghi was 48 when she lost her life in the April 8 attack.
She knew the PMOI since she was a high school student in Iran.
She was arrested in 1983 at the age of 18 and imprisoned for supporting the PMOI.
She spent three years in prison and lost her contact with the movement.
Later, she received a Bachelor’s of Science in Social Sciences Research.
In 2007, she found out about Ashraf and travelled there for a visit. Upon return to Iran, she was arrested and imprisoned but later released on heavy bail.
Then she quickly left the country in June 2008 to join the movement in Ashraf.
Marzieh was very popular for being kind and humble, at the same time determined.
On April 8, 2011, the PMOI freedom fighters stood up to a column of ten armored, infantry, mechanized brigades and battalions of the Iraqi forces affiliated with Tehran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. They attacked Ashraf City at the behest of the Iranian regime to massacre all of its defenseless residents, destroy the city and annihilate the opposition.
The freedom fighters were empty handed without any shields. Snipers targeted them in the head and chest. Armored vehicles ran over at least 22 people. Iraqi forces shelled the residential units. They did not even allow the wounded to be taken to hospital.
The shooting of heavy armored vehicles and snipers continued incessantly for six hours. The plan was to massacre all the residents of Ashraf.
180 people were shot directly. A number of hostages died in captivity. Some 300 people were wounded.
But Ashraf residents stood firm and prevented the enemy from taking over the city which was the beating heart of the Iranian people’s Resistance movement.