Over this short series, we will look at what Maryam Rajavi, who has led the Resistance for nearly 30 years and lost many relatives and friends to the mullahs, said in that interview.

In this piece, we will look at what Maryam Rajavi said about Qassem Soleimani, including his role in Iraqi politics in recent years and his assassination in a US drone strike in January, the evolution of the uprisings, and the role of women in the Resistance movement.

Soleimani

Maryam Rajavi explained that Soleimani was the de-facto second-in-command of the Iranian regime, in charge of regional terrorism and warmongering and “directly responsible” for the expansion of the wars in Syria and Yemen, as well as the hidden occupation of Iraq since 2003. She said that he was also the mastermind of the biggest attacks against Iranian Resistance members in Iraq, particularly the massacre at Camp Ashraf in September 2013.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Soleimani has no substitute in the regime and with his death, the strategy of exporting terrorism and war, which is one of the pillars of the regime’s survival, received an irreversible blow.”

She advised that the mullahs attempted to hold a massive funeral and fool the world into thinking that Soleimani was popular, by forcing soldiers, prisoners, and families of the security forces to take part. This clear lie was revealed just days later, during the January 2020 uprisings, when protesters ripped down his posters and/or set them ablaze.

The evolution of the protests

Maryam Rajavi said that since the December 2017 uprisings, there has been a major shift in the Iranian protest movement, where protesters have moved from “concrete demands” about things like unemployment to calling for regime change.

She said: “From a political standpoint, these uprisings accentuated three lines of fundamental demarcation that cannot be reversed. The first is the Iranian people’s unwavering determination to overthrow Ali Khamenei and his regime. The second is the rejection of all factions of the theocracy, including Hassan Rouhani, who plays the “moderate” card while being involved in all political and social suppressive measures. The third irreversible development was the rejection of the remains of the monarchist dictatorship.”

Women’s role in the protests and the Resistance

Maryam Rajavi advised that women have always played a vital role in the uprisings, as eyewitness accounts, photos, and videos show. Even the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) and the Ministry of Intelligence admit that women are extremely active in the protests and the Resistance.

This is not a new thing but has occurred since the Resistance was fighting the Shah in the 1960 and 1970s.

She said: “The fact is that repression and the climate of terror have not stopped the growing number of young people from joining the ranks of resistance units. The overthrow of the regime cannot happen spontaneously and without an organized movement.”

 

Read More:

Maryam Rajavi’s Conversation With El Espanol: Part 1