To start off, Maryam Rajavi thanked those responsible for helping the Resistance move their base of operations from Iraq, where they were under siege from the Regime’s proxies, to Albania in 2016, before advocating the strength of the Resistance.

Maryam Rajavi said: “We have consistently broken new ground and advanced through firing squads, massacres, missile attacks, bombardments and terrorist designations, for the removal of which you all stood by our side. Time and again, flames were set to burn us down, but we rose again like a phoenix from underneath our own ashes. We successfully prevailed over malicious hostilities, demonization campaigns and unbridled terrorism.”

The Regime have often claimed that they have no viable alternative, but this is a lie. The Resistance is strongly supported by the Iranian people. How else would they have survived through the fight against two dictatorships? Why else would the Regime try so hard to eradicate Maryam Rajavi and the Resistance?

Maryam Rajavi noted that over the Iranian people’s 120-year-long struggle for freedom, they have all found that in order to achieve victory, a heavy price must be paid and they are willing to pay it.

However, despite the will of the people at the turn of the 20th century, Maryam Rajavi says that they lacked a coherent organization with a battle-hardened force. That’s why, despite major sacrifice, the previous struggles did not succeed. Today, Ashraf 3 has that organisation and can bring freedom to Iran.

Maryam Rajavi said: “As I studied portions of this exhibition… I could not help but be in awe of the authenticity of these women and men and the magnificence of this resistance on the one hand, and on the other hand be shocked by the crimes of the mullahs’ regime against the best and brightest among the people of Iran… On the one hand are excessive crimes and on the other, great sacrifices, faith and an epical resistance by pioneers of the Iranian nation, which is truly remarkable. Of course, this exhibition is just a snapshot of the history of the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom.”

Maryam Rajavi then gave a brief overview of the history of the Iranian Resistance movement from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1979 revolution, highlighting how the people deposed the absolute monarchical dictatorship during the Constitutional Revolution in 1905. Sadly, due to a lack of democratic structures, despotism returned in under 15 years.

In 1951, Mohammad Mossadeq, the leader of the oil nationalization movement, formed the first and only truly nationalist and democratic government in Iran, but was toppled in a coup just two-and-a-half years later. Then, the Shah held power until 1979, imprisoning and executing the Resistance, doing away with freedoms, and paving the way for Ruhollah Khomeini to hijack the revolution against the Shah and establish himself as a dictator.

In our next piece, we will discuss the goal of the anti-monarchical revolution.