BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, May 1, 2024, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
According to horrific documents released by the BBC World Service, four agents of Khamenei’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in the arrest and subsequent sexual assault of 16-year-old protester Nika Shakarami. The barbaric murder of Nika, which occurred during the 2022 Iran uprising, is a clear case of crimes against humanity.
Following the discovery of her body, the mullahs’ criminal regime claimed that Nika had committed suicide by throwing herself off a building.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran has strongly condemned this atrocious and inhuman crime. It has called for international investigations into the case and the expedited terrorist designation of the clerical regime’s Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC.
The BBC’s bone-chilling account of Nika’s murder reveals the depth of systemic savagery in a misogynist despotic regime that has consistently responded to the pivotal role of women in the nationwide resistance for freedom and justice with utmost barbarity for over four decades.
Today, women of different backgrounds and ages across Iran are at the forefront of the movement for regime change. The regime has regularly admitted to this reality and considers it its Achilles’ heel.
State-run media Mashreq, affiliated with the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC, wrote earlier this week, “The fact that Persian-language media and the opposition work hard on the issue of women shows that after much research, they have found that women are the force of change in Iranian society, and only in this way can they change their actions and achieve their designs.”
Referring to NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi’s critical role, Mashreq added, “In the 2010s, Maryam Rajavi wrote a book titled ‘Women, the Force of Change’ because women are the only force and element that can shape change in the true sense of the word in Iran.”
Women are indeed the force of change in Iran, and nothing–including the barbarism of Khamenei–can stop them.