I am very grateful for this opportunity to address this gathering. I am hopeful
in the course of my remarks, I can provide the answers to some of your questions.
The women's movement of Iran has a long history. At the turn of the century,
Women were active in the movement for freedom in Iran. They organized themselves
and provided logistical support. During the Constitutional Revolution in 1906,
the system of monarchical despotism was transformed to constitutional monarchy.
During the anti-Shah movement, there was a sharp increase in the number of
women who joined organizations seeking to gain freedom through armed struggle.
Although their numbers were still limited, during this era, for the first time
women were arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the dreaded secret police,
SAVAK.

As the momentum of the anti-shah movement picked up, demonstrations erupted
Across Iran, involving millions of people. Again, there were a striking number
of women among them. This process culminated in the overthrow of the Shah's
regime. For a short while afterwards, when freedom actually did prevail in Iran,
the opposition political organizations were able to freely operate in society.
In an extraordinary manner, women took to political activism. Of course, there
was also a fundamental reason: from day one, the Khomeini regime began to
discriminate against and suppress women.
 

I was a supporter of the Mojahedin. As I became acquainted with their views, I
began to involve myself in the political warfare. I started out selling
newspapers and collecting contributions for the Mojahedin. In those days,
Mojahedin women and girl activists were a new phenomenon in Iranian society.
When the era of peaceful political opposition drew to a close, and the need for
Resistance became apparent, women members of the Mojahedin took on a variety of
responsibilities in the bases. In the prisons, other women put up a heroic
resistance against vile treatment. In direct contrast to society, where women
had no rights and were of no account, in the prisons they were tortured and
tormented twice as brutally, precisely because they were women.
For example, one of the most savage methods of torture for women is rape. The
Khomeini regime set up certain units, called residential units, to suppress
women political dissidents. There, the regime retaliated against women who had
committed the unforgivable crimes of demanding freedom and refusing to submit,
by having them continuously raped by its Revolutionary Guards. We have women in
our organization, and in our army, who emerged from these cells. Today, years
after their imprisonment, they still have not recovered emotionally. In some
cases, these women became vegetables, but to the last they refused to abandon their beliefs.
The record of resistance by women in the prisons of the Khomeini regime is a
source of pride in our nation's history. We do not even know yet the full
dimensions of their ordeal. That will have to wait, until that day when the
prison doors are opened wide, and the truth is revealed in the light of day.
Thus, Iranian women kept pace with the progress of the movement, and were
present in every arena. They played out their role in the best, most responsible
manner. When the National Liberation Army was formed in 1987, the women of the
Iranian Resistance found a new arena in which to overcome new trials. You saw
some scenes of these women in the video, and you heard what problems our women
overcame as they traveled this path. Here, I would like to speak to you a little
about the days when women first made their way into the NLA.

Women were first active in support units in the NLA. During this stage, which
did not last long, they were busy in the transport, supply, administrative, and
similar units.

Next, women became involved in providing back up for military operations. To
accomplish this, we first formed women's brigades in the NLA, which was then an
infantry army. Within their brigades, women combatants ran all of their own
affairs, from servicing their equipment to mechanical repairs. They were trained
separately from the male combatants. After they had learned the ropes, they
began to take over the logistical support for the military operations, first
with mortars and then artillery guns.

The next stage was for women to actually take part in the operations. In spring
1987, the NLA launched its first major operation, code-named "Shining Sun," in
the southern province of Khuzistan. Women were organized into two separate
brigades, and for the first time took the field and fought face to face with
Khomeini's forces on the front lines. The enemy's forces were shocked to find
themselves captured by one of the women's brigades. Scenes of their capture,
their surprise evident for all to see, were featured in some of the world's
leading newspapers. Despite all the objections you have heard, women were
fighting on the front-lines and reality was laid bare. Like their male
counterparts, the women of the NLA demonstrated they were capable and
qualified.

The women's brigades, now veterans of a full-scale military operation, were
merged with the male brigades. These units took part in the "Forty Stars"
operation together, during which the strategic city of Mehran in western Iran
was conquered. One of the Khomeini regime's best-armored units was destroyed,
and billions of dollars in tanks and weapons were seized as booty. 1,500 of the
regime's soldiers were taken prisoner.

Immediately after this operation, only a week later, the National Liberation
Army staged the "Eternal Light" operation. "Eternal Light" was the NLA's largest
operation, and penetrated 150 kilometers into Iran. The fighting raged over four
days. Two cities were liberated, and the NLA reached the gates of Kermanshah,
the largest city in western Iran. The Khomeini regime suffered 55,000 casualties
in this operation, the first in which women commanded many divisions and
brigades.

Just as you heard in the video from combatants who joined the NLA only a year or
so ago, the operation, and in particular the fighting spirit of the NLA's women,
had a tremendous impact. 1,200 NLA combatants were killed or went missing in
"Eternal Light," many of them women. Women of various ages, women with children.
One older woman died along with her daughter and son-in-law. And of course, there
were many young women, who fought courageously against Khomeini's Revolutionary
Guards. In one case, three women combatants of the NLA held off a force of 6,000
for hours, until their ammunition ran out. Before dying as martyrs to their cause,
they killed hundreds of the regime's Guards. The regime was convinced - until after
it was all over- that it was facing a squad or brigade, hunkered down in
bunkers. Afterwards, of course, it found only three women.

Up until this time, the NLA was essentially an infantry army. After "Eternal
Light," our army began to evolve into an armored force. In truth, this stage was
equivalent to all the earlier stages of the NLA's formation. The point to notice
is that although our army resembles a classical army, as far as our methods and
our combatant's motivation are concerned, we are unlike any classical army in
the world. For that reason, instead of taking long years, our evolution into an
armored force took only two years.

This process was undertaken with the creativity, encouragement and constant
supervision of Maryam Rajavi, who was then the NLA Deputy Commander in Chief. Of
course, this is a whole discussion in itself, but I wanted to give you an idea
of how, under these high-pressure conditions, we simultaneously introduced women
into the emerging armored apparatus.

At first, to be truthful, no one, except Mrs. Rajavi, believed it could be done.
First, a group of commanders, men and women, checked out the theory in the
field. The top female commanders in the NLA sat in tanks and tried to learn how
to use them. The first answer that Mrs. Rajavi received was that the task was
impossible, but she was not convinced. She sent another individual to study the
job, our martyred sister Zahra Rajabi. Zahra was a women of formidable
determination, effort and creativity. Physically, she was very strong. She
declared war on the tank, and she won. Mrs. Rajavi said, "If one woman can do
it, then all women can do it." And thus, the women of the NLA began to undergo
training in the armored divisions.

In the beginning, the women were generally unwilling to take co-ed courses.
Hence, a group of women commanders had to first undergo the training process,
master the materials and skills, and take on the training of the other women in
separate classes. But after the first group of women had graduated from the
training courses, the "tank taboo" was shattered and co-ed classes were formed.

Actually, the women performed much better in those classes than their male
counterparts, even in practical trials. Their initial foot-dragging was a
product of their view of themselves as the weaker sex. After this concept was
proven wrong, they no longer resisted the training, and thus did much better in
practice. Of course, the same applies in theory, but I will not go into that,
because theory is something that women discovered long ago.

We also passed through several other stages while making full participation by
women a reality. One stage involved the NLA's airborne division, another the
operational commanders, who draw up battle plans, and another involved
introducing women into the general command. One by one, we overcame the mind
blocks resulting from the women's lack of faith in their own capabilities and
unwillingness to take on the responsibility of command and operational planning,
where hundreds of lives are at risk. If it were not for Mrs. Rajavi's constant
advice and encouragement of each combatant, we never would have made it.

In truth, she was the first woman to shoulder the burden of leadership. She did
not run from the problems and effort that task requires. She was the only one
who believed that women can take part in every task. As I explained in our
transition to an armored force, she never gave up in the face of other's lack of
faith. She did whatever it took to resolve the conflicts.

We have been blessed with the presence of this innovative woman in the
leadership of our movement, and we have found the proper path of our struggle.
The experiences of each and every one of us confirm that if we had not been
engaged in a tortuous struggle, and had not had this leader as our role model,
we could never have conquered our own disbelief, and achieved true faith in the
practical equality of men and women.

What actually sets Mrs. Rajavi apart, is that she has brought an entire
generation of women along her path. The jobs that our women perform in the army
have certainly been taught in other armies of the world. And there have always
been the few exceptions, who even flew combat missions in wars, including the
last war in Kuwait. But these were only a few women who, for whatever reason,
had the desire and personal ability to overcome all the inherent difficulties.
In our movement, this was not the case. We had women from every walk of life,
all social classes, all ages and levels of education. They wanted freedom, but
had few feminist ideas. Our pilots were scared of the very idea of flying. Our
tank commanders were afraid to fire their cannons. Our unit commanders said, "We
were not cut out for this!" For many of them, when they joined the freedom
movement in Iran, they thought martyrdom under torture lay at the end of the
road they had chosen."

But in the harsh resistance against the anti-woman regime of Khomeini, they
became convinced that it was imperative that women be introduced into every
arena. And they realized that if they did not emerge victorious from each of
these arenas, they would not be capable of overthrowing the Khomeini regime and
establishing peace and justice in their homeland.
Because the enemy is anti-human, because the enemy uses the most inhuman means
to crush his opponents, we had to become the anti-thesis of Khomeini, to the
marrow of our bones and in the depths of our souls. Otherwise, we would not be
able to go on with the struggle. We could not submit to our enemy, even in our
most secret thoughts.

Mrs. Rajavi's greatest achievement lies right here. She declared war on the
Khomeini mentality, hidden deep in the minds of the most enlightened sector of
Iranian society. These were people who in theory, were absolutely convinced of
the equality of women and men, and opposed to any form of discrimination. But
deep inside, and in practice, they were the opposite. As you saw in the video,
and I briefly explained, it was these ideas and perceptions, which prevented the
progress of the struggle.

We have focused here on the issue of women. But let it not go unsaid that if the
men in our movement had not made the conscious decision to accept the command of
qualified women, this experience would have been a failure. At first, it was no
easy task for these men to take orders, even from women who had proven
themselves qualified. But we worked on this problem, we did not ignore it. We
discussed it at length, and of course Mrs. Rajavi also taught the men that
liberation from patriarchy and belief in the equality of women with men was also
imperative for men. They had to annihilate the idea that their own sisters,
mothers and daughters were less than human, were somehow second-class. They had
to fight against that notion, and in doing so, they would achieve their own
humanity and internal unity.

For example, for me and other officials and commanders, it was so much easier to
use one of the male officials or commanders in delegating responsibility or
choosing a commander for a unit or post. Because of his experience, or record,
or maturity. They did not have all the problems a woman would in taking on the
responsibility.

But in truth, this was simplistic, and it did nothing to solve the problem. In
its own way, it meant the exclusion of women. But then the movement as a whole
stood up to the idea of male dominance, and we firmly confronted gender
suppression at every turn - without, of course, ignoring the individual's
qualifications and commitment. In the military, there are no joking matters.
Recognizing the need for expansion, our movement and our army saw in practice
that women who can overcome their lack of faith in themselves and discover their
own capabilities, make worthy, efficient commanders. Of course, their potential,
motivation and sense of responsibility are greater than a man's, because they are
like a spring that has been compressed; all of a sudden, they are free.

To shatter the notion of male superiority, which bound the hands and feet of our
men and women, we voluntarily ended our marriages in divorce, so that no one had
any responsibility to anyone or anything but the all-out war on the Khomeini
regime. Our women chose to take this path to disengage themselves from what the
world defined as being a woman, the weaker sex, and to disengage themselves from
their traditional role, in which to be recognized they required the existence of
a husband.

In the same fashion, to rid themselves of the notion that they owned their
wives, body and soul, and it was they who inspired the women to strive, our men
had to recognize their wives' right to choose between a life of resistance and a
private life. They had to learn to look upon women not as women, but as equal
human beings.

In this way, our women and men were physically helped to step outside of their
traditional roles and to consciously declare war on ideas which they had
automatically brought with them from society.

In a year's time, with the start of the Gulf War, the Iranian Resistance's bases
in Iraq became vulnerable to a continuous bombardment, unprecedented in history.
The seriousness of our situation and conditions of war in which we found
ourselves were such that we could no longer condone the presence of our children
in the bases. Everyone was sent into the bunkers, and everything was transported
underground. We had prepared ourselves for very difficult conditions, and did
not want our innocent children, not yet at an age to choose their destinies, to
be scarified. Thus, all combatants, mothers and fathers, sent their children out
of Iraq to safety, where they were taken in by relatives and Resistance
supporters.