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| Massoud Rajavi Iran Resistance Leader |
#Massoud Rajavi was born in the town of #Tabas in 1947. He attended #Tehran University where he earned his degree in
political science. Rajavi
became influenced by #PMOI’s modern
interpretation of Islam early in life. Joining the #PMOI in 1967, he was
involved in discussions on religion, history, and revolutionary theory. #Rajavi
later became a member of the Central Committee.
In 1971, all the founders and the Central
Committee of the #PMOI, (#MEK) including Rajavi, were arrested and sentenced to death
by #SAVAK, the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service
established by Iran's Mohammad #Reza Shah. From 1975 up until his release in
1979, Massoud Rajavi led the #Mojahedin’s resistance against all three fronts
while incarcerated in different prisons. He stressed the need to continue in
the fight against Shah’s dictatorship and warned against the emergence and
growth of religious backwardness and despotism symbolized by #Khomeini.
After his release, #Rajavi was dedicated to
rebuilding the #PMOI. He gave weekly lectures at #Sharif University that
attracted large audiences. An article in #Le Monde described the occasion:
“One of the most important events not to
be missed in #Tehran are the courses on comparative philosophy, taught every
Friday afternoon by Mr #Massoud Rajavi. Some 10,000 people presented their
admission cards to listen for three hours to the lectures by the leader of the
People’s Mojahedin on #Sharif University’s lawn.”
In 1980, #Massoud Rajavi was nominated for
the Iranian presidential election. In his book, The #Iranian Mojahedin, #Ervand
Abrahamian writes:
“#Rajavi’s candidacy was not only endorsed
by the #Mojahedin-affiliated organizations...; but also by an impressive array
of independent organizations including the #Feda’iyan, the #National Democratic
Front, the #Kurdish Democratic Party, the Kurdish Toilers Revolutionary Party
(#Komula), the Society of Iranian Socialists, the Society for the Cultural and
Political Rights of the #Turkomans, the Society of Young #Assyrians, and the
Joint Group of #Armenian, #Zoroastrian and #Jewish Minorities. Rajavi also
received the support of a large number of prominent figures: #Taleqani’s widow; #Shaykh Ezeddin Hosayni, the spiritual leader of the #Sunni #Kurds in #Mahabad; #Hojjat al-Islam #Jalal #Ganjehi...; fifty well-known members of the #Iranian
Writers’ Association, including the economist #Naser #Pakdaman, the essayist #Manuchehr Hezarkhani and the secular historians Feraydun Adamiyyat and #Homa
Nateq; and, of course, many of the families of the early Mojahedin martyrs,
notably the #Hanif-nezhads, #Rezais, #Mohsens, #Badizadegans, #Asgarizadehs, #Sadeqs, #Meshkinfams, and #Mihandusts. The #Mojahedin had become the vanguards of the
secular opposition to the #Islamic Republic.”
#Khomeini denied and vetoed #Rajavi’s
candidacy for the #Iranian presidential election. #Khomeini’s reasoning was that #Rajavi had opposed the national referendum on Iran's new constitution, which
established a theocratic government. Rajavi ran for a seat in Iran’s new Majlis
(parliament), but lost the race after a discrepancy in the vote tally and
election process.
On July 29, 1981, Massoud Rajavi announced
the formation of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. He invited all
democratic forces opposed to religious despotism to join the democratic
alternative to the religious, terrorist dictatorship.
When the mass arrests, imprisonments and
executions of PMOI members began to accelerate by the mullah’s dictatorship, he
was forced to leave Iran. Mr Rajavi travelled to Paris on board of an Iranian
aircraft from a military base in Tehran. The extraordinary flight was organized
by PMOI supporters within the Iranian Armed Forces.
During a critical time for regime’s
internal situation in 1984, Senators Gary Hart and Edward Kennedy - in addition
to thousands of statements of support from other countries - wrote to Massoud
Rajavi, to declare their support for the Iranian people’s just resistance.
These statements of support alarmed the mullahs, who subsequently made any
normalization of relations with Western countries, including the United States,
contingent upon curbing the activities of the Mojahedin and National Council of
Resistance.
During the time that the
Iranianpeople were being devastated by the Iran-Iraq war which had
destroyed the country and had taken the lives of over a million on the Iranian
side alone, Massoud Rajavi made the tough decision to initiate a peace campaign
to end the war. A decision which was wholeheartedly supported by the Iranian people
who had suffered so much during the war.
Rajavi had to leave France in 1986, when
the French government, which was involved in negotiations with the Iranian
regime over the fate of French hostages in Lebanon, pressured him to do so, and
as a result he traveled to Iraq in June 1986. The Iraqi government at the time
had recognized the PMOI’s political, financial and military independence.
Since the formation of the NCRI, Massoud
Rajavi has concentrated his efforts to the Council. His management of the NCRI’s
affairs earned him the trust of the NCRI’s members. In August of 1993, The NCRI
elected Maryam Rajavi, wife of Massoud Rajavi,
as the future President of Iran.
