THE AYATOLLAH SYSTEM OF IRAN –
A THEOCRACY GONE ROGUE
Stes de Necker
Establishment
of the Ayatollah Theocracy
The current Iranian Theocracy or so-called “Khomeinism” is
the founding ideology of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Impact of the religious and political ideas of the
leader of the 1979
Iranian Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, includes replacing Iran's millennia-old
monarchy with a theocracy.
Khomeini declared Islamic jurists the true holders of not
only religious authority but political authority, who must be obeyed as
"an expression of obedience to God", and whose rule has "precedence
over all secondary ordinances [in Islam] such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage."
Since the death of Khomeini, politics in the Islamic
Republic of Iran have been largely defined by attempts to remain loyal and
faithful to his ideology.
In the West
however Khomeini has become the “virtual face of Islam" who inculcated Western
fear and distrust towards Islam.
As Supreme Leader of Iran (also called the Supreme
Leadership Authority), the Ayatollah is the head of state as well as the
ultimate political and religious authority of the Islamic
Republic of Iran.
The armed forces, judiciary, state television, and other key government
organizations are subject to the Supreme Leader. The current long-time
officeholder, Ali Khamenei,
has been issuing decrees and making the final decisions on economy,
environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and everything else
in Iran.
The Supreme Leader directly chooses the ministers of
Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, as well as certain other ministers,
such as the Science Minister.
Iran's regional policy is directly controlled by
the office of the Supreme Leader with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' tasks limited to protocol and ceremonial
occasions.
All of Iran's
ambassadors to Arab countries are chosen by the Quds Corps, which directly reports
to him.
In its history,
Iran only had two Supreme Leaders: Ruhollah Khomeini, who held the position from 1979 until his
death in 1989, and the current Ali Khamenei, who is holding the position since
Khomeini's death.
In March 1979, shortly after Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from exile and the overthrow of
Iran's monarchy, a national referendum was held throughout Iran with the
question "Islamic Republic, yes or no?" 98% of those voting voted
"yes".
Following this landslide victory, the constitution of
Iran of 1906 was declared invalid and a new constitution for an Islamic state
was created and ratified by referendum during the first week of December in
1979.
The new constitution was largely based on the philosophy
of Khomeini as presented in his work “Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist” In
this document Khomeini argued that government must be run in accordance with
traditional Islamic sharia, and for this to happen a leading
Islamic jurist (faqih) must provide political "guardianship" over
the people.
The new Constitution stressed the importance of the
clergy in government, with Article 4 stating that : “all civil, criminal,
financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and all
other statutes and regulations (must) be keeping with Islamic measures;…the
Islamic legal scholars of the watch council (shura yi nigahban) will keep watch
over this.”
As the constitution of the
Islamic Republic states, it “intends to establish an ideal and model society on
the basis of Islamic norms”.
The Constitution provides the
necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the Revolution at home and
abroad. In particular, in the development of international relations, the
Constitution will strive with other Islamic and popular movements to prepare
the way for the formation of a single world community.
Maryam Rajavi (President elect of the NCRI) has maintained
on many occasions that terrorism is a key instrument of advancing the regime’s
foreign policy; the two cannot be separated.
In 1970 Khomeini
broke from the traditional form of Islamic Governance and developed a new
approach to state rule; A revolutionary change in Shia Islam proclaiming that a
monarchy was inherently unjust, and that religious legal scholars should not
just become involved in politics but rule.
Ayatollah Khomeini was a senior Islamic jurist cleric of
Shia (Twelvers) Islam. Shia theology holds that Wilayah or Islamic
leadership belongs to divinely-appointed line of Shia Imams descended
from the Prophet
Muhammad, the last of which is the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi.
The God-given (Infallible)
knowledge and sense of justice of the Imams makes them the definitive reference
for (Shia) Muslims in every aspect of life, religious or otherwise, including
governance.
However, the
twelfth Imam disappeared into what Shia believe is "occultation"
(ghaybat) in 939 AD and so has not been present to rule over the Muslim
community for over thousand years.
In the absence of the Imam, Shia scholars/religious
leaders accepted the idea of non-religious leaders (typically a sultan, king,
or shah) managing political affairs, defending Shia Muslims and their
territory, but no consensus emerged among the scholars as to how Muslims should
relate to those leaders.
Shia jurists have tended to stick to one of three
approaches to the state: cooperating with it, becoming active in politics to
influence its policies, or most commonly, remaining aloof from it.
For some years, Khomeini opted for the second of these
three, believing Islam should encompass all aspects of life, especially the
state, and disapproving of Iran's weak Qajar dynasty, the western concepts and language borrowed in
the 1906
constitution, and especially the authoritarian secularism
and modernization of the Pahlavi Shahs.
Khomeini's decrees, sermons,
interviews, and political pronouncements have outlasted his theological works
because it is the former and not the latter that the Islamic Republic of Iran
constantly “reprints."
Without the decrees, sermons,
interviews, and political pronouncements there would have been no Khomeinism
[ideology]; without Khomeinism there would have been no revolution; and without
the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini would have been no more than a footnote to
Iranian history.
Even the massacre of 30,000
political prisoners in 1988 is seen as an attempt by Khomeini to forge unity among his disparate
followers, raise formidable (if not insurmountable) obstacles in the way of any
future leader hoping to initiate any cooperation with the West, and most
importantly to weed out his non- supporters from the his true supporters.
Before the Revolution, Khomeini is on record that he
expressed the following:
‘In an Islamic order, women enjoy the same rights as men
- rights to education, work, ownership, to vote in elections and to be voted
in. Women are free, just like men to decide their own destinies and
activities.’
After the Revolution however, Khomeini made a 180˚ turnaround
opposing women to serve in parliament, likening it to prostitution!
“We are against this prostitution. We object to such wrongdoings.......
Is progress achieved by sending women to the majlis? Sending women to these
centers is nothing but corruption.”
Under Ayatollah rule, woman’s rights in Iran have been
severely restricted; from what they are allowed to wear in public to the jobs
they hold, to not being allowed to watch men’s sports in stadiums.
Restrictions on women’s rights in Iran include amongst
others:
Compulsory
“veiling” (hijab) laws.
The laws violate a woman’s right to equality, privacy,
and freedoms of expression, belief and religion, and empower police and
paramilitary forces to target women for harassment, violence and imprisonment.
Limited
political involvement.
Women’s rights activists who had campaigned for greater
representation of women in the February 2016 parliamentary elections, were
subjected by the Revolutionary Guards to lengthy, oppressive interrogations and
threats of imprisonment on national security charges.
Pervasive
discrimination.
Women remain subject to discriminatory laws, including in
gaining access to divorce, employment, equal inheritance, politics and in the
area of criminal law.
Sexual
and reproductive health.
Several draft laws that remain pending would further
erode a woman’s right to sexual and reproductive health. Women continue to have
reduced access to affordable modern contraception as the authorities have
failed to restore the budget of the state family planning program cut in 2012.
National
family policies.
In September 2016, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
issued national family policies promoting early marriage, repeated
childbearing, fewer divorces, and greater compliance to “traditional” roles of
women as housewives and men as breadwinners. The policies raised concern that
female victims of domestic violence may face further marginalization and
increased pressure to “reconcile” with abusers and remain in abusive marital
relationships.
Gender-based
violence.
Women and girls remain inadequately protected against
sexual and other gender-based violence, including early and forced marriage.
The authorities failed to adopt laws criminalizing these and other abuses,
including marital rape and domestic violence.
Of all legal systems in the world
today, Iran’s Sharia based laws are of the most intrusive and draconic laws on
earth, especially against women.
According to the Sharia law:
·
A non-Muslim man who marries a
Muslim woman is punishable by death.
·
A man can marry an infant girl
and consummate the marriage when she is 9 years old.
·
Girls' clitoris should be cut
(per Muhammad's words in Book 41, Kitab Al-Adab, Hadith 5251).
·
A woman can have 1 husband, but a
man can have up to 4 wives; only Muhammad can have more.
·
A man can unilaterally divorce
his wife but a woman needs her husband's consent to divorce.
·
A man can beat his wife for
insubordination.
·
Testimonies of four male
witnesses are required to prove rape against a woman.
·
A woman or girl
who alleges rape without producing 4 male witnesses is guilty of adultery.
·
A woman or girl
found guilty of adultery is punishable by death
·
A woman who has been raped cannot
testify in court against her rapist(s).
·
A male convicted
of rape can have his conviction dismissed by marrying his victim.
·
A woman's testimony in court,
allowed only in property cases, carries half the weight of a man's.
·
A female heir inherits half of
what a male heir inherits.
·
A divorced wife
loses custody of all children over 6 years of age or when they exceed it.
·
A woman cannot drive a car, as it
leads to fitnah (upheaval).
·
A woman cannot speak alone to a
man who is not her husband or relative.
Nowhere in the world is so much
cruelty and barbaric punishment dispensed in the name of religion as in
Iran.
Crimes punishable by death in
Iran include murder; rape; child
molestation; sodomy; drug
trafficking; armedrobbery; kidnapping; terrorism; burglary; pedophilia; homosexuality; incestuous
relations; fornication; prohibited sexual relations; sexual
misconduct; prostitution; plotting to overthrow the Islamic
regime; political
dissidence; sabotage; arson; rebellion; apostasy; adultery; blasphemy; extortion; counterfeiting; smuggling;
speculating; disrupting production; recidivist consumption of alcohol;
producing or preparing food, drink, cosmetics or sanitary items that lead to
death when consumed or used; producing and publishing pornography; using
pornographic materials to solicit sex; recidivist false accusation of capital
sexual offenses causing execution of an innocent person; recidivist theft;
certain military offenses (e.g. cowardice, assisting the enemy); "waging
war against God"; "spreading corruption on
Earth"; espionage and treason.
This almost ‘sadistic-psychoses’,
or fanaticism, is what we are witnessing daily taking place Iran.
This theocratic regime has become
fanatics who thrive on terror and has survived primarily by instilling it in
others. The religious dictatorship uses executions methods in the most barbaric
way, such as public hangings and stoning alongside other cruel measures,
including amputating hands and feet, or even gouging out eyes, to create a
climate of fear and terror across the Iranian society, to utterly quell all
voices of dissents who are the true subject of their wrath.
Since the beginning of the mullahs regime,
their brain-washed subordinates – Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Qods Force, the Basij militia, and its notorious Ministry of Intelligence and
Security (MOIS) - have slaughtered countless numbers of innocent people under
the guise of Islamic faith; even sending out death squads to track down
dissidents living abroad.
The regime of the Supreme Leader has used religion as a
justification for repression.
A distortion of Islamic prescripts has over the past four
decades served as alibi for the corrupt regime to justify their horrors.
The regime for instance gave the name "rehabilitation”
to torture and “call for modesty” to a merciless repression of women in all
their social behaviour, to disguise their unholy theocracy.
In its war against Iraq in the 1980s, this regime offered
so-called ‘keys to paradise’ to schoolchildren and high school students whom it
recruited to wipe minefields in order to facilitate the passage of its troops.
The Constitution openly denies national sovereignty and
gives absolute powers to the Supreme Leader.
These are the features of a regime that is not a Republic
and has nothing to do with Islam, but calls itself the Islamic Republic.
Over the last four decades, the peace-loving
people of Iran became the enemy of their rulers. Many have awakened to the fact
that these fanatics own them, and that their world, as they knew it,
didn’t exist anymore.
Since the end of 2017/beginning of 2018, many
innocent Iranians opposed to the regime and/or taking part in peaceful
demonstrations against the injustices in that country, ended up facing severe
punishment, some rounded up by the attack dogs of the regime, the Basij
militia, who waded into protesters on motorbikes, dragging many of the
ringleaders off to prison, while others were beaten with batons or picked off
by regime snipers using live ammunition, many arrests ending in execution.
Iran became the perfect example of the truth that
power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolute.
Thankfully there is a limit to
how much stress can be put on people before open revolt and revolution becomes
their only option. Iranians have had enough and the imminent overthrow of the
draconic mullah regime is in sight.
1.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK)
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK)
was founded by Mohammad Hanifnejad, Said Mohsen, and Ali-Ashgar Badizadgan on
September 6, 1965.
The Freedom Movement advocated for the “democratic
principles enshrined in the fundamental laws of 1905-09 [Iranian]
Constitution.”
By September 1971, SAVAK had infiltrated and captured and
imprisoned about 150 MEK members, which included the group’s founders and
members of the Central Committee.
Sixty-nine Mojahedin were brought before military
tribunals and charged with attempting to overthrow the monarchy, among other
offenses.
The MEK was relatively unknown at this time, but the
resistance organization rapidly became a household name, which was lauded for
its efforts to bring democracy and freedom to Iran.
The regime executed or imprisoned all of the MEK’s
leadership, including its founders and members of the Central Committee.
Massoud Rajavi received a death penalty but Massoud Rajavi’s brother, Dr. Kazem
Rajavi, organized an international campaign from his home in Geneva to commute
Massoud’s death sentence to life imprisonment.
Massoud Rajavi was freed from prison after serving seven
years of his sentence. His release occurred on January 20, 1979, four days
after the Shah fled Iran.
Mr. Rajavi was among the last group of 162 political
prisoners to be released.
Four days after leaving prison, Mr. Rajavi gave a speech
at Tehran University where he discussed the MEK’s history, his reverence for
freedom, and bringing democracy to Iran. His speech was attended by thousands
of people. This event marked the new
beginning of the Mojahedin National Movement.
Mr. Rajavi announced the MEK’s political platform for a
new Iranian government in a speech on February 23, 1980. In his speech, Mr.
Rajavi established the MEK as the main opposition party to Khomeini and the
fundamentalist clerics.
Rajavi’s speech in Tehran University was, in fact, the
Mojahedin’s anti-fundamentalist manifesto.
Though the MEK is a political organization, its
orientation, operation, and support derives from its interpretation of Islam,
which was conceived in its early years. The MEK believes that Islam is an
inherently tolerant and democratic religion and is fully compatible with the
values of modern-day civilization.
The Mojahedin believe that freedom, gender, ethnic and
religious equality, human rights, and peace are more than just political
commitments; they are ideological principles based on their view of the Quran
and the traditions and teachings of Prophet Muhammad, Shiite Imams, and other
leaders.
The MEK’s political platform and interpretation of Islam
are one and the same.
This combination makes the MEK unique amongst political
groups, and it is a major reason the organization continues today to amass
broad public support.
“The Islam we want is nationalistic, democratic,
progressive, and not opposed to science or civilization. We believe there
is no contradiction between modern science and true Islam, and we believe that
in Islam there must be no compulsion or dictatorship.” (Mr. Rajavi – 1982)
“Freedom is a divine blessing. Anyone trying to restrict
human freedom has neither understood Islam nor mankind and the
[anti-monarchist] revolution. Freedom is indispensable to the survival of
mankind as human beings.” (Rajavi – 1980)
In 2009, the U.S. government transferred the protection
and security of over 3,000 PMOI members in Camp Ashraf to the Iraqi government.
On the orders of the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then-Iraqi
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attacked Camp Ashraf in July 2009, April 2011,
and again in September 2013, killing over 100 residents and injuring more than
1,000 in the process.
Subsequent to these attacks, the residents of Ashraf were
transferred to Camp Liberty under the auspices of the United Nations. They were
attacked several more times by missiles and rockets, as a result of which
dozens were killed and many more were wounded.
The objective of the clerical regime and its puppet
government in Iraq was to completely eradicate the Iranian Resistance through
these attacks.
The PMOI has attained significant victories in support of
regime change and establishment of freedom and democracy in Iran.
As a result of their relentless international political
campaigns and efforts, the safe relocation of almost 3000 residents of Camp
Liberty to Albania and other European countries was successfully completed on
September 6, 2016.
The PMOI’s relocation as an organization completely foiled
the Iranian regime's schemes to destroy and annihilate the Mojahedin at Camp
Liberty, Iraq
2. The
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
On July 21, 1981, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, then leader of the opposition People's
Mojahedin Organization of Iran, announced in Tehran the formation of a
coalition of democratic opposition forces seeking to overthrow the mullahs'
Velayat-e Faqih regime and establish a pluralistic democracy in the country.
In autumn 1981, the NCRI began a series of intense and
lengthy meetings in which its members drafted and adopted the Council's
constitution, its platform, and the immediate tasks of a provisional government
as well as the NCRI's internal modus operandi.
The NCRI has also adopted a number of plans for
Iran's future, including: The NCRI's Peace Plan, the Plan for the Autonomy of
Iranian Kurdistan, the Declaration on the Relations of the Provisional
Government with Religion and Denominations, and the Plan on Rights and Freedoms
of Women.
In 1993, upon the NCRI President's proposal, the National
Council of Resistance of Iran adopted the ancient Persian Lion and Sun as the
NCRI's official emblem, and placed it on the tri-colored flag of Iran.
Maryam Rajavi was born into a middle-class family in
Tehran. One of her brothers, Mahmoud Rajavi was a veteran member of the
Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), and was a political prisoner during the Shah’s regime.
Her older sister Narges was killed by the Shah’s secret
police, SAVAK, in 1975. Her other sister, Massoumeh, an industrial engineering
student, was arrested by the clerical regime in 1982. Pregnant at the time, she
was ultimately hanged after undergoing brutal torture.
In 1993, during its plenary
session, the National
Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition whose members
include a number of Iranian opposition organizations and prominent
personalities, elected Maryam Rajavi as the President-elect for the
period of transitioning power to the Iranian people.
Maryam Rajavi has mounted an extraordinary political,
social, cultural and ideological challenge to the ruling mullahs in Iran.
Under her leadership, women have risen to hold key
positions in the Iranian Resistance. Over half of NCRI members are women. They
occupy various political, diplomatic, social and cultural positions in the
Resistance.
Maryam Rajavi has made numerous speeches regarding
the real message of Islam, which revolves around tolerance and democracy, in
direct contradiction of the reactionary and fundamentalist interpretation of
Islam. She believes that one of the most important differentiators between
these two entirely contradictory views of Islam focuses on attitudes toward the
status of women.
Among her published works are: “Islam, Women, and
Equality,” “Women, the Force
for Change,” and “Women against
Fundamentalism.”
In 2002, the NCRI adopted a plan to form the National
Solidarity Front for the overthrow of Iran's ruling religious tyranny. Within
the framework of this front, the NCRI declared that it is prepared to cooperate
with other political forces. The National Solidarity Front embraces all
Iranians who totally reject the Velayat-e Faqih regime and all its internal
factions, and seek to establish a democratic and independent republic based
on separation of religion and state.
In 2005, Maryam Rajavi declared: "In the free Iran
of tomorrow, we will be committed to and defend the abolition of the death
penalty and elimination of all forms of cruel punishments. We once again
reiterate our commitment to the Convention against Torture, international
humanitarian laws, and the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination
against Women."
The NCRI acts as the Iranian people's
“Parliament-in-Exile”.
Both the NCRI and the PMOI are the only true resistance
movements who have stood bravely and unafraid of the clerical regime. Since
their formation the NCRI and the PMOI has remained steadfast in their
opposition to the mullah’s dictatorial government.
In 1994, during a speech delivered at the Oslo city hall,
Mrs. Rajavi warned about the octopus of religious tyranny and Islamic
fundamentalism whose heart beats in Tehran. She said: “Fundamentalism has
turned into the greatest threat to peace in the region and the world,” adding,
“The mullahs ruling Iran are pursuing their expansionist agenda and exporting
crises and tensions by exploiting the religious beliefs of over a billion
Muslims.”
In December 2004, during a speech at the European
Parliament, Maryam Rajavi proposed the Third Option, a clear prospect to
resolve the Iranian crisis, which had caused anxiety on a global scale.
“In the face of this challenge, two options have been
raised: The make-a-deal approach to the clerical regime with the aim of
containing it or including gradual change. For the past two decades, Western
countries have subscribed to this approach. The other option is to overthrow
the clerical regime by way of an external war, similar to what occurred in
Iraq. No one would want to see this repeated in Iran. But I have come here
today to say that there is a third option: Change brought about by the Iranian
people and the Iranian Resistance. If foreign obstacles are removed, the
Iranian people and their Resistance are prepared and have the power to bring
about change. And this is the only way to prevent external wars. No concession
is going to dissuade the mullahs from continuing their ominous objectives.”
In a call in August 2016 to the people of Iran and
members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance, Maryam Rajavi announced the
movement calling for justice for victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran.
The
movement's demands included prosecution of all masterminds and perpetrators of
the 1988 massacre, publication of the names, specifics and places of burial of
all victims of the massacre, and announcement of the identities of everyone
involved in making decisions and executing the slaughter.
The ‘Call for Justice’ rapidly grew both inside Iran and
abroad and now, after 28 years, turned the massacre of political prisoners into
a top issue of debate in Iranian society.
After more than a year of civil protest and
demonstrations against the brutality and total disregard of basic human rights
and freedoms in Iran, the immanent overthrow of the deceptive mullah regime and
prosecution of those responsible for the decades of suffering of the Iranian
people has arrived.
The rest of the free world carries full responsibility to
support and promote the judicial prosecution and punishment of all those
responsible for their heinous crimes.
In modern civilised society there
is no place for such a barbaric antiquated ideology.
May God bless Iran and her people abundantly.
