On 8 February 2020, ARCHumankind Director Paulo Casaca addressed a rally in Stockholm on the anniversary of the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution and in support of Iran protests. This rally was part of a set of demonstrations in the UK, Canada and the US by supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI, or MEK), and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In addition to Paulo Casaca, among the speakers in Sweden were several Swedish parliamentarians and Mr Parviz Khazaei, representative of the NCRI in Nordic countries.
Swedish-Iranian communities joined together to stand up for a true, pluralistic democratic government in Iran. Supporters paid a special tribute to the 1500 + protestors who were killed by the Iranian regime in November. Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president elect, addressed demonstrators in Stockholm via video and said:
‘Your gathering and rally today in Stockholm are a clear testament to the Iranian people’s relentless resolve to achieve freedom and to overthrow the inhuman clerical regime.’ ‘Indeed, after 40 years of the mullahs’ rule, we are confronted with a country whose soil is destroyed, its air is polluted, its forests have been devastated, its lakes, ponds, and rivers have been dried and its environment destroyed.’ ‘After 40 years of the mullahs’ rule, Iranian people are vulnerable in the face of floods & earthquakes, victims of road crashes, distressed by poverty, forced to sell body parts and humiliated by unemployment, and drug addiction.’ ‘The Iranian people’s sovereignty cannot be usurped. This is the Iranian people’s right for which they have fought and paid the ultimate price, and they will certainly achieve it.’
Demonstrators called on Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with international allies, including the UN and the EEAS to hold the Iranian regime accountable for their human rights atrocities. Paulo Casaca, together with Iranian communities and supporters throughout Europe and North America, strongly condemned the crimes committed by the clerical regime.
