As Iran finds itself
engulfed in domestic and external turmoil, the opposition in-exile enjoys the
prowess and cohesion to elect a
new secretary general.
A new
administration in Washington has been ramping
up the heat, punishing Tehran for meddling in
other states’ affairs and advancing its ballistic missile drive. All the while
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has seen his representative rejected by
two senior Shiite leaders in Iraq, the proxy war in Yemen going
south and Tehran’s support to maintain Syria’s Bashar Assad in power eating up
crucial resources. Internally, the Iranian people are stepping up their protests to
significant scales.
In now
daily protests thousands of investors are
demanding their savings from state-run institutions, and the city of Baneh in
western Iran recently witnessed clashes as locals took to arms to protest the
ruthless killing of porters by state security forces. In a parallel significant
development, the Iranian opposition People’s MojahedinOrganization of Iran(PMOI/MEK) held its
congress on Wednesday marking its 52nd anniversary and sitting to elect a new
secretary general.
This process was held in
six different cities, including Tirana, the Albanian Capital, where most MEK
members are stationed after their long ordeal in Iraq, along with five other
countries. Ms. Zahra Merrikhi was elected as the new MEK Secretary General,
replacing Ms. Zohreh Akhiyani, who served from 2011. The MEK Secretary General
is elected for one two-year term, which can be extended considering the
circumstances.
In view
of its unique nature and differences from state or party elections, MEK rules
and regulations define the election of a secretary general to be held in three
different assemblies.
In the
first such assembly,
held by members of the MEK Central Council on August 20, 2017, an initial 12
candidates were introduced, of which four reached the next stage with Ms.
Merrikhi receiving a majority of the votes.
At the second assembly, held two
weeks later, senior MEK officials and cadres casted their ballots for the final
four candidates, with Ms. Merrikhi leading the vote tally again. The third and
final assembly, held on Wednesday, witnessed all MEK members raising their
hands and unanimously electing Ms. Merrikhi as the new MEK Secretary General. Born in
1959, Ms. Merrikhi joined the MEK in the years leading to the 1979 revolution.
She was summoned and interrogated several times by the Shah’s intelligence
service for her activities. Her younger brother, Ali, was killed by the current
Iranian government back in 1988. From 2003 onward she served as the coordinator
of the office representing Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi,
President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI),
a coalition of opposition groups including the MEK.
The democratic approach
adopted by the MEK in this election process is in stark contrast to
that imposed on its compatriots by the ruling clerics of Iran for the past four
decades. It also undercuts the oft-repeated, Iran government’s inspired
characterization that it has an authoritarian structure. If we were to take the
Iran’s presidential “election” into consideration, we would view a selection by
an unelected few, far from anything resembling an election in today’s 21st
century.
Iran’s so-called presidential “elections,”
which banned all women, is a procedure in which all candidates are vetted by a
12 ultraconservative clerics and so-called legal experts, named the Guardian
Council, who are directly and indirectly appointed by the Supreme Leader.
All candidates
are evaluated for
their utter devotion and obedience to the clerical rule and Supreme Leader.
Before May’s vote even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as
the president for eight years and Khamenei launched a massive nationwide
crackdown in 2009 to quell any opposition to his engineered reelection, was
disqualified from this year’s presidential race. As the political establishment
in Tehran sees its foundingfathers
dying one after another and Khamenei himself battling severe
health issues and allegedly cancer, there are serious woes about the future of
his rule and the ruling clerics in its entirety. And with conservative cleric
Ebrahim Raisi – said to be groomed by
Khamenei to reach the presidency and eventually succeeding him at his throne –
failing to unseat Hassan Rouhani from the presidency, no new face with the
necessary majority support is seen to lead this political establishment into
its unknown future.
It is a complete different story for the MEK leadership,
however, as Ms. Merrikhi currently enjoys the support of
18 co-Secretaries General (including seven former Secretaries General) and
three deputies from the organization’s younger generation.
Narges
Azodanlou, 36, Rabi’eh Mofidi, 35, and Nasrin Massih, 39, all born during or
after the 1979 revolution, represent the
MEK’s dynamic characteristic and how this organization is able to adapt and
deliver young new leaders for this fast-changing world. In short, Merrikhi’s
election demonstrates process,
structure, depth of leadership ranks, and a genuine and practical commitment to
gender equality, especially in leadership positions. “Today, the PMOI, with the
help of the Iranian people, is prepared as never before to overthrow the
clerical regime,” Ms. Merrikhi said after
expressing gratitude to her predecessors and vowing to remain loyal to the
MEK’s ultimate objective of establishing freedom and democracy in Iran.
Welcoming Ms. Merrikhi’s election, NCRI President-elect Rajavi described this
new development as signaling the soon-to-come change of the theocratic ruling
in Iran.
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