National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is a broad coalition of organizations, groups and democratic personalities. It was founded in 1981 in Tehran by the initiative of Masoud Rajavi, leader of the Iranian resistance.

PARLIAMENT IN EXILE

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has more than 500 members, including representatives of ethnic and religious minorities such as the Kurds, Baluchis, Armenians, Jews and Zoroastrians. NCRI represents a broadband of political tendencies in Iran.

Acting as a parliament in exile, the NCRI aims to establish a democratic republic in Iran, based on the separation of religion and state. Women make up 50 percent of the council members. Five organizations are also members of the NCRI including the Mujahedin organization of the people of Iran, the largest and most popular resistance group within Iran.

DEMOCRATIC DECIDES

All Council members have one vote. All decisions are made by a simple majority.

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF SIX MONTHS

The twenty-five council committees form the basis for a provisional coalition government once the Mullahs have fallen. Each committee has an eminent political personality as a president, who is also an expert in the subject. The provisional government will be in power for only six months. Its main responsibility will be to hold free and fair elections for the formation of a national legislative and constitutional assembly and the transfer of power to the representatives of the people of Iran.

PRESIDENT-ELECT

Maryam Rajavi is the elected president of the NCRI during the transition period. Its mandate will consist of supervising the peaceful transfer of power to the Iranian people after the fall of the regime. Mrs. Rajavi was born in 1953 in Tehran and has a degree in Metallurgical Engineering. The Shah executed one of her sisters, and the Khomeini regime killed another while pregnant. Maryam Rajavi has addressed parliamentary groups in the Council of Europe and the European Parliament and also Parliamentary Committees in several European countries expressing her views (June 2008, in the Italian Parliament: a 10-point Declaration on the future of Iran, July 2006, European Parliament: Declaration 2 on the rights of women, December 2005 in Paris: declaration on human rights).

FORMATION OF A NATIONAL SOLIDARITY FRONT FOR OVERCOMING THE RELIGIOUS DICTATORSHIP GOVERNED BY IRAN

In November 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) adopted a plan to form the National Solidarity Front to defeat the religious dictatorship that governs Iran. The front will include all Iranians who fight for a change of the regime and the establishment of a secular republic. Mrs. Rajavi described the front as "a reflection of the deepest democratic desires of all the people of Iran, regardless their ideology, belief, religion and ethnicity. A desire that transcends all political and partisan interests." She said that the front "incorporates the indomitable resolve of the people of Iran to defeat the inhuman regime of the Mullahs."

HUMAN RIGHTS

The NCRI accepts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the relevant agreements, including "Freedom of association, freedom of thought and expression, press, political parties, unions, councils, religions, and religious practices, and does not allow any violation of social or individual rights and freedoms."

WOMEN

The NCRI recognizes:

· the women’s right to elect and be elected in all elections and the right to vote in all referendums

· the right of employment and free choice of profession and the right to hold any public office including the presidency of the country or judgeship

· the right to freely choose their clothes

· the right to use, without discrimination, all educational, sporting and artistic resources

· the right to participate in all sports competitions and artistic activities. 

More information about the goals of NCRI, you can find on their Facebook Page.

ECONOMY

The council accepts national capitalism and market economy, private ownership and investing. It emphasizes the need to use the latest scientific and technical achievements and considers the relations with the industrialized countries as necessary to rebuild Iran's economy.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) believes in the separation of religion and state. According to its ratifications, any form of discrimination against followers of different religions is prohibited. No citizen shall have any privilege or suffer deprivation of his right to be a candidate for election, suffrage, employment, education, the right to be a judge or any other individual or social right, because he belongs to a particular religion or religious denomination.

Read our previous post: A Non-Nuclear Iran.