Spring of freedom

By INU Staff INU- Last month, former New York Mayor  Rudy Giuliani addressed  the American Iranian Diaspora, which stands against the mullahs’ regime for the ninth time. Giuliani is a member of a large bipartisan group of former governors, mayors, military leaders, senior administration officials and members of Congress, who agree that Iran is entitled to “freedom and democracy” and should be led by those already fighting for those values, with whom the US can ally themselves. This is the wish of the Iranian people, who have been calling for regime change in nationwide protests since December 2017. The rest of the world should join Giuliani and his group in supporting The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the largest and most organised Iranian opposition group, as the regime change that the Iranian people clamour for will take requires organization, leadership, a platform, endurance, competence, and sacrifice. But why should the MEK take up this m...

Hashem Khastar, a known teachers’ union activist in Iran Following the abduction of Hashem Khastar, a known teachers’ union activist in the city of Mashhad, northeast Iran, and the Revolutionary Guards ( IRGC ) intelligence confining him in a psychiatric hospital his wife and child were finally permitted to visit him. “On Thursday, I went to the courthouse for permission to visit my husband, Mr. Seyed Hashem Khastar, in Mashhad’s Ebn Seena Hospital. There was no file or records about this arrest. I spoke to the deputy public prosecutor about my husband’s arrest and he said they had not issued any orders for his arrest. I spoke with another deputy public prosecutor and he said we had not given any orders either. I received the same answer from the Intelligence Ministry, the IRGC intelligence and the police,” Mrs. Sedighe Maleki-fard said. “The Social Emergency unit arrested him outside his orchard and took him straight to the Ebn Seena Hospital. They took blood from him and g...

The Basij targets Afghan immigrants in Iran, some as young as 14 years old, to fight in Syria.” The US Department of Treasury on October 16 designated the Iranian Basij paramilitary forces along with 22 linked companies and financial institutions as  terrorist organizations . The US Treasury’s latest move against the Iranian regime effectively freezes the assets of these organizations and bans US citizens and companies from dealing with companies and financial institutions connected to Basij, the paramilitary wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Two days later, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations said in her  remarks in UN’s Security Council : “In less than two weeks, on October 30, Iran will celebrate Student Basij Day.” “What does Basij Day celebrate? It is the day during the Iran-Iraq War when a 13-year-old boy strapped a live grenade to his body and leaped under an oncoming Iraqi tank. His name was Hossein Fahmideh. Child soldiers like Ho...

INU- The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran or Mujahedin-e-Khalgh (PMOI/MEK) are the longest-standing Iranian opposition group and they have weathered many storms is their 60+ year history of opposing the violent regimes of the Shah and the mullahs, but one thing keeps them fighting hard: the idea of a free Iran. Unlike many opposition groups around the world, the MEK is ready and willing to usher in a new Iran once this regime falls; an Iran that would be democratic and free. Given that the Iranian mullahs, besieged by domestic and international pressures, will soon fall, it seems only right to look at the 10-Point political platform that was adopted by the MEK and the rest of the democratic Iranian Resistance. 1. Free and Fair Elections: The MEK believes that the ballot box is the only way to political legitimacy, so the MEK seeks universal suffrage and democratic elections. 2. Pluralism: The MEK wants a free society, with respect to all individual freedoms. This me...

Iran – Mullahs’ regime plundering the people is fueling social unrest Head of the Iranian regime’s parliamentary workers’ faction acknowledged the disturbing fact that the absolute poverty line in Iran under the mullahs’ regime has increased from 17 percent to 34 percent in the last year alone. “Considering the current daily expenses, the absolute poverty line has at least doubled from 17 to 34 percent,” said Alireza Mahjoub, chair of the workers’ faction in the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament). The International Labor Organization has defined the absolute poverty line as $2 dollars a day for each individual, he said in an interview with the state-run Asr-e Iran daily. Therefore, under such a definition, there are many individuals in Iran that are considered living under the  absolute poverty line . “Last year we said a paycheck of 30 million rials or less would not be justifiable and this analysis was made prior to the current circumstances. Of course, considering...

Various cities across Iran are witnessing protests & strikes  As teachers across Iran continue their nationwide strike for the second consecutive day on Monday reaching 103 cities and truckers forced regime officials to succumb to three of their demands after  three weeks of strikes , more reports are coming from numerous cities across Iran about people from all walks of life holding a  variety of rallies . In Tehran, clients of the Revolutionary Guards-linked Caspian credit firm rallied outside the Iranian regime’s Central Bank, demanding their stolen money returned. The protesters were chanting: “The bankrupt government is sitting on our money” Clients of the Caspian credit firm were also rallying in the city of Rasht in northern Iran. Braving heavy rainfall, these protesters gathered outside the Caspian branch and demanded their plundered savings returned. They were chanting: “Our life’s work has been stolen and plundered” “We’ll continue our p...

Karaj – Students showing support for their teachers’ strike across Iran In a new development, U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert voiced support for the Iranian teachers’ nationwide strike sweeping across the country on Sunday and Monday. In Iran, schools are open from Saturday to Thursday, and closed only on Fridays. We are following the reports of nationwide strikes in  #Iran . We support the right of the Iranian people to peacefully express their rightful demands. These strikes have a message for the regime: stop wasting Iran’s wealth abroad and start addressing the needs of your own people. — Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox)  October 15, 2018 “We are following the reports of nationwide strikes in  #Iran . We support the right of the Iranian people to peacefully express their rightful demands. These strikes have a message for the regime: stop wasting Iran’s wealth abroad and start addressing the needs of your own people.” The freedom-lov...

Under scrutiny. The conference room of the Zahra Centre, the headquarters of a Shia association in northern France, after it was raided by 200 policemen, on October 2. (AFP) There was a time Iran systematically assassinated Iranian opposition members in Europe. Some of the more prominent assassinations of the 1980s and early 1990s were: Shahriar Shafiq, the shah’s nephew; General Gholam-Ali Oveissi; former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar; regime critic Reza Mazlouman in France; Iranian Kurdish opposition leaders in Austria and Germany and Kazem Rajavi, representative of the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MEK) to the United Nations in Switzerland. The practice of assassinating opponents abroad ended in the 1990s when the regime in Tehran tried to gain respectability and international acceptance. There are signs, however, that Iran is turning the clock back to the bad old days. The first ominous sign appeared in July when the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service confirm...