Shahnaz Pahlavani was born in 1961 in Ramhormouz, in southern Iran.
She grew up and studied in Isfahan in an orthodox Muslim family, but did not like the practices of her family.
After the 1979 revolution in Iran, Shahnaz Pahlavani found her ideals in the opposition PMOI. But she lost contact with the organization after it was banned and the PMOI supporters and sympathizers were mass executed and massacred by the regime.
After 2003, she found out that she can travel to Iraq and join the movement, which was the happiest moment of her life.
Shahnaz was very grateful for finding the movement after years of separation. She was willing to sacrifice everything of her own for the good of others and to advance the goals and objectives of the Resistance in Ashraf.
Shahnaz Pahlavani 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. She volunteered to join the frontline of men and women who defended the city.
On that day, 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.
