Ms. Dorien Rookmaker, MEP from the Netherlands, addressed a conference at the European Parliament’s headquarters in Brussels on April 9, 2024.
The conference sponsored by the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality was entitled, “Championing Change: Supporting the Long Journey of Iranian Women.”
Following is the speech by MEP Dorien Rookmaker:
Thank you so much, Mrs. Maxova. I am honored to be a guest of your event. And thank you so much, Maryam Rajavi.
I am so happy to see you again. It is an honor and a pleasure to support you in any way we can. I think you are one of the most courageous women around the world, and you are really and truly an inspiration for me.
Your endurance is beyond comprehension, and your courage is so great. It is really, really of admiration that I speak to you.
Having said this, I wanted to tell my colleagues, but also the women who are here, that I attended the conference for the International Women’s Day in Paris, and this was a very inspirational event as well.
All these women, you know, and from all these backgrounds, and from America, South America, they came from everywhere, and it was such a wonderful atmosphere. And it told us that your movement and the opposition of Iran is really, truly backed by the right, and the left, and the political center.
We are really aligning, we are joining together to remove the terrible regime in Iran that is currently there. And all these women were chanting, like, “women, resistance, and freedom.” Women, resistance, freedom was really impressive. I thought it was impressive.
And what does it mean? Well, it has a historical connotation, I learned.
In the last 45 years, from the onset of the Iranian regime, the Iranian women paid a very heavy price for freedom. They are brave, because they were tortured, they were imprisoned, of course, there were many executions, and there is a massive repression.
But we still see more and more women coming together to support the opposition in Iran. And this is really a hopeful side, I think. And it is only appropriate to recognize and acknowledge the historical and crucial role women have played in the struggle for democracy in Iran.
I am the chair of the oldest and first ladies’ association in the Netherlands, and of course, we get our freedom free, we got it free, and we take it for granted a lot of times, you know.
Then I see you. You have to struggle so much. We must remember that the regime has mobilized the entire state, including security, intelligence, and judicial institutions against the Iranian people, not only women, of course, the Iranian people, to stay in power.
This state of repression has been built on and enforced with misogyny. They are afraid of the power of the Iranian women, and they should be afraid of the power of Iranian women. I do not want to underestimate men. I apologize for being a little bit offensive, maybe. But I have learned that men are powerful, and we need them in the opposition. But I also learned that women have a long way; they are resilient, and they have a capacity for endurance, and that’s it. We keep going; we keep going. Maybe we are not that strong physically, but we are strong mentally, I think. Therefore, I am hopeful for the Iranian future.
And before I close, I want to focus on the case of Maryam Akbari Monfared. She is an inspiration to all of us as well. And this is also typical, a woman with a lot of courage, a lot of strength, who keeps on going, and is still going strong. I think she is an inspiration to all of us.
She was taken to the Evin prison at a midnight in December 2009, without being able to say goodbye to her daughters, which is, of course, terrible. And in addition to the 15 years she has spent in prison to date, she was recently sentenced to another three more years, which is, of course, terrible. And her crime was that she sought justice for four of her siblings, executed ruthlessly by the clerical regime.
And this is a normal thing to do. No one should be punished for seeking justice. This is clear to all of us here. Her sister and brother were executed during the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. A fact that a lot of people in the West, in Europe, are not aware of still. And this is shocking, because these numbers go beyond comprehension.
And she wrote from Evin prison, “Now the spring of freedom is on the way,” and I believe she is right. Spring will come. It will pass through the barbed wires and land in your homeland, and not my homeland, but your homeland. And this is exactly the meaning of resistance.
I hope she can hear us today. I asked the Commission, and I know there will be a new one at the start of the next mandate, but I asked the Commission to do everything that is possible legally, and to do whatever they can to get rid of this criminal regime, and instead a democratic one, which I think, should be under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, with her 10-point plan.
And, well, we are here together today as women, and I hope we, and some men, and I hope we will see each other on a regular basis, also during election time, because I think an election campaign is a good time to get people’s attention for serious business.
Elections are important, but removing the regime in Iran is the most important thing, I think, not only for Iranian people, but also for people in Europe, because Iran is the source of all-evil. It is the source of proxy wars; it is the source of terrorism. It is the source of terror, and it is the source of death, mainly.
I leave it at that. I am with the promise that I will support you and do whatever I can to help you get Iran to a new future in which democracy, freedom of speech, and choice will be a fact of life, and just as normal as it is in the Netherlands.
Thank you.
