On Saturday, February 21, 2026, on the eve of March 8, International Women’s Day, the NCRI Women’s Committee hosted an international conference in Paris entitled “Women’s Leadership: An Imperative for a Free Iran and a Democratic Republic.” The conference, attended by women legislators, academics, thinkers, and
prominent political figures, focused on women’s political participation and leadership as a decisive element in a democratic society.
At this conference, Helen Goodman, Former Member of the UK House of Commons,
was present and addressed the conference. The full text of her speech is provided below:
Helen Goodman: Women of Iran Will Have Full Rights and Leadership in a New Democracy
Well, sisters, the more we hear from women in Iran, the harder it becomes to speak to you this evening. But I felt that after the uprising in January, it was impossible for anybody who has access to free media, not to understand the brutal repression of this regime. The violence met with unarmed protesters and the attempt to hide this by switching off the internet.
Here was a regime lacking any popular support, lacking any democratic legitimacy, desperately clinging to power. I’ve just been told by somebody else in the room that they’ve seen on the internet that the latest estimate of deaths is 32,000. We’ve had independent reports of soldiers going to hospitals, going into homes, shooting, imprisoning and torturing. Even this week, the BBC had a film of mourners at a cemetery, and when they started to chant, as has just been described, soldiers started to shoot them.
So what has been the response of the international community? Well, as we meet, we see a massive build-up of armaments and the threat of military force, and the regime is responding in the same way. But the media coverage in the free world is concentrating solely on Iran’s external international policies: the build-up of the nuclear, the support for the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
Now, of course, the regime should not be exporting its terrorism. It should not be destabilizing the region. But the people of Iran want much more than an end to the nuclear program. What they want is a change of regime, and not just a fall of theocracy, an end to the continuing autocracy of the Pahlavi dynasty.
In 1980, I went to a UN women’s conference in Copenhagen. And when I was there, I met women like the one we just heard from who had been involved in the 1979 revolution. And they were proud of the part which they had played in 1979. And it is clear that Iran does not need to go backwards, it needs to go forwards. The heroic involvement of women in the resistance has shown, if anyone had any doubts, that they must have an equal part to play in the new democratic Iran. And Mrs. Rajavi has shown that her 10-point plan is the way forward.
So what can other countries do to support the movement for change? Well, unfortunately, I am no longer a member of parliament, but I have got the message. I will make it my mission to go back to London with the message that the British government must make the IRGC a terrorist organization. Because it’s the IRGC who are holding up this horrible, violent, destructive regime. So, as we near International Women’s Day, we need to remind the world that in the new democratic Iran, women will have a full part in the leadership of the country, full equal rights before the law, and play a full role in the democracy. Women of Iran, we salute you. We salute your persistence, your idealism, and your courage. Thank you.
