Mrs. Ezzat Nouri passed away in Tehran in mid-August 2021, after 45 years of struggle for freedom. Better known as Mother Khademi, Mrs. Nouri always supported the main Iranian opposition force, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), despite threats and high risks.
Ezzat Nouri joined the brave mothers of PMOI members in 1975 after the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, arrested her son, Hamid Khademi. She participated in the gatherings and demonstrations by mothers, including in Tehran’s famous Bazaar and mosque, Hosseiniyeh Ershad, to seek justice for their imprisoned children. The Shah’s secret police could not prevent their activities.
Mrs. Ezzat Nouri participated in the anti-Shah rallies and demonstrations that led to the 1979 Revolution ousting the Shah of Iran. One of these significant acts was the successful gathering of the mothers of political prisoners outside Lawyers’ Guild in Tehran in January 1979, demanding the release of all political prisoners.
After the 1979 Revolution, the house of Mother Khademi was one of the places were PMOI members gathered for meetings. She continued this support for the PMOI/MEK until the final days of her life.
Even when the headquarters of the Iranian Resistance in Auvers-sur-Oise, Paris, was attacked on June 17, 2003, she was among the brave women who held a protest outside the French Embassy in Tehran under the mullahs’ suppressive rule.
Her son, Hamid Khademi, and her daughter-in-law, Fereshteh Azhadi, were killed during an attack on one of the main PMOI headquarters in Tehran on May 2, 1982. After this attack, the clerical regime’s intelligence agents stepped up pressure on Mother Khademi and harassed her more than ever. They arrested her, but she did not cave in to the regime and continued her support for the Iranian opposition Mojahedin.
In 2004 and 2005, Mother Khademi traveled to Ashraf, the PMOI’s seat in Iraq, to visit the Mojahedin. Upon return to Iran, the mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry arrested and took her under torture for 10 days.
On January 16, 2009, Mother Khademi and dozens of PMOI families were arrested at Tehran’s airport, as they were heading to Ashraf to visit their children. The clerical regime’s intelligence agents brutally attacked the PMOI families at the airport and took them into detention.
Despite all the pressures, risks, and losses, Mother Khademi firmly kept up her support for the PMOI/MEK until the end of her brilliant 93-year life.
With her passion and faith, Ezzat Nouri (Mother Khademi) is an example of the patient and courageous mothers of Iran, who joined the opposition since the arrest of her son, kept up her struggle under the mullahs’ religious fascist regime, and never gave up.
Until her final days, she said she prayed for the PMOI/MEK and their leadership all days and nights.
May she rest in peace along with all the freedom lovers who laid down their lives for Iran’s freedom.
