On August 30, 2025, at the City Hall of the 17th district of Paris, a conference titled “Iran Uprising Against the Execution Regime” was held, featuring a speech by Ms. Dominique Attias, President of the Administrative Council of the European Lawyers Foundation, President of the European Bar Association with over one million members (2021–2022), and Vice President of the Paris Bar Association (2016–2017).
Commemoration and Resistance
Commemoration, mourning, but also resistance, struggle, and campaigning are the key themes of the day at the 17th district City Hall. Commemoration and mourning, because all those martyrs are present in this exhibition: 30,000 men, women, boys, and girls who were still teenagers, and today we mourn them and honor their memory.
Rulers of Death and Repression
Lives sacrificed on the altar of human cruelty, embodied in figures such as Ebrahim Raisi, the henchman of the 1988 massacre and later President of the Islamic Republic, who fortunately now burns in the fires of hell. The savagery represents by Khamenei and his executioners; many of them are remnants of the monarchic regime, so accustomed to torturing and executing people that they allied with the mullahs to continue their vile duties and escape the wrath of the Iranian people. But this is only a retreat for a greater leap.
You executioners, the people of Iran will eliminate you.
Ashraf Sadat Ahmadi, Symbol of Brave Women
These disappeared women and men are still alive in our hearts. Allow me to remember one of them, who alone symbolizes all the brave women who were cowardly killed. I had never spoken of her before, but now I want to say it! I want to speak of Ashraf Sadat Ahmadi! Look at her. Look at her.
After completing her studies and earning her diploma, this young woman, during the Shah’s era, nurtured the dream of freedom for her people and joined the ranks of opponents of the Shah’s regime. She was imprisoned by the same regime. Do not speak to us of another Shah! No Shah no mullahs!
She, who had been imprisoned by the Shah’s regime, was again jailed under Khomeini’s regime, while she had just given birth; her torturer snatched her child from her arms. Yet no harassment, no torture, no threat could break this indomitable woman, just as none of the Iranian women loyal to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran ever broke.
Those who knew her testified to her sacrifices and courage: her selfless devotion and unwavering support for her fellow female inmates, some of whom had been in prison for years. They testified to her smile, her faith in a free Iran, and her adherence to the PMOI’s ideals.
She was 47 years old when the mullahs dragged her from her cell and hanged her. On that day, July 31, 1988, she was a star among thirty thousand other stars that these criminals wanted to extinguish forever.
Crime Against Humanity
This was the conclusion of the UN Special Rapporteur in a report published a year ago. We have mentioned it many times. Yes, crime against humanity; a crime that the Iranian regime will never be able to erase. For years, they have tried to destroy the evidence of their crimes: by destroying graves and mass burial sites where these martyrs rest, by desecrating their corpses, even after death!
Continuation of Repression and Executions
This summer, the mullahs, facing people’s uprisings, hastened their vile work: 9,500 graves were destroyed and desecrated, while families were kept away. 9,500 people were deprived of burial so that a parking lot could be built in their place! Absolute wickedness! Curse upon those who desecrated this sacred place—the cemetery—and trampled on the fundamental right, respected in all societies and religions, of honoring the dead. With these acts, they once again confirmed and perpetuated their crimes against humanity.
A great anger burns within me, in the face of all these heinous acts that so far have gone unpunished. Yes, still unpunished. And also anger at the criminal, if not cowardly, indifference of the international community.
Iranian Women, the Frontline of Resistance and Struggle
Yet I hear the voices of my friends in the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, constantly saying: Resistance! Yes, resistance is embodied by these Iranian women and mothers.
Maryam Akbari Monfared whispers in my ear: Resistance! A woman who has taken up the torch of struggle from Ashraf Sadat Ahmadi. She is right there, have you seen? There is a whole booth about her: Over 15 years in prison, tortured, separated from her children. She continues to resist, even at the cost of her life. She resists, like all those who, as you said today, put their lives at risk every Tuesday through hunger strikes to say: Enough! No more executions!
Warning Against Executions and International Duty
Executions continue. I especially recall five women who were executed in the past three weeks. The Iranian regime is the world’s foremost executioner of women. Do not speak to me about the benefits of so-called reformists coming to power in Iran! We saw some of them still sneaking in. Since Pezeshkian came to power at the end of July last year, allegedly a reformist, the number of victims has exceeded 1,600.
Resistance, however, also requires organization for campaigning. Because the mullahs not only destroy the traces of their crimes but, taking advantage of their immunity so far, openly call for the repetition of these massacres! What audacity! What sheer vileness! How can one speak of such slaughter as a “successful historical experience that must be repeated”? Warning! Warning! Warning!
Our Support, the Backbone of Resistance
Is resistance alone enough now? The decision rests with the National Council of Resistance of Iran, its main organization, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, its remarkable President Maryam Rajavi, and the Iranian people. As for us, today and worldwide, our duty is to always stand by them.
Thank you.
