Ypres, Belgium — December 11, 2025: Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), speaking at the City Hall of the historic city of Ypres, paid tribute to the city’s enduring legacy as a global symbol of peace while condemning Iran’s ruling religious dictatorship for decades of human rights abuses and repression.
A warm welcome in Ypres, the City of Peace, for Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi
The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran was welcomed last night to @StadIeper by Mayor Katrien Desomer & former 🇧🇪 Prime Minister @YLeterme@FocusWTV’s coverage: 👇 pic.twitter.com/duVIHCa81r
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) December 12, 2025
Addressing Mayor Emmeline Desomer and distinguished guests,Mrs. Rajavi expressed gratitude for the warm welcome and praised Ypres as a city whose history continues to remind the world of the cost of war and the value of peace. She also acknowledged the presence of former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, noting his deep connection to the region and its humanitarian values.
Mrs. Rajavi highlighted Ypres’ nightly remembrance ceremonies and its powerful historical memory, shaped by the devastation of World War I and the suffering caused by chemical weapons. She described the city as a moral beacon for human dignity, freedom, and peace, honoring the sacrifices of countless unknown soldiers. She announced her participation in the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, where she would lay flowers in memory of those who lost their lives.
Turning to Iran, Mrs. Rajavi drew a parallel between the tragedies of war commemorated in Ypres and the suffering of the Iranian people. She recalled the 1988 massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners, executed on orders from Iran’s then-supreme leader and buried in mass graves. She said families of the victims continue to seek justice while facing persecution for honoring their loved ones.
Speech at the City Hall of the Historic City of Ypres in Belgium
We have been struggling against a religious dictatorship that is deeply against humanity and peace.#StandUp4HumanRightshttps://t.co/ERt4ug9fhE pic.twitter.com/gQHYEYRPvs— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 12, 2025
Mrs. Rajavi described her visit to the In Flanders Fields Museum as a deeply emotional experience, stating that its silence and stories conveyed a message stronger than words about peace and human dignity. She emphasized that human dignity lies at the core of the Iranian Resistance, which she said has spent more than four decades opposing a regime “deeply against humanity and peace,” at the cost of more than 100,000 lives.
She accused Iran’s authorities of systematically trampling human rights through executions, discrimination against women and minorities, compulsory religious rules, and the denial of basic freedoms. Reiterating the Resistance’s demands, Mrs. Rajavi declared opposition to compulsory hijab, compulsory religion, and compulsory governance.
Marking International Human Rights Day, Mrs. Rajavi said the movement’s goal is a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state, gender equality, the abolition of the death penalty, and peaceful coexistence with the world. She stressed that a non-nuclear Iran is essential for regional and global peace.
Our movement is engaged in a difficult battle for freedom, human dignity, gender equality, and human rights.
Beyond killing people, the clerical regime has attacked the human dignity of our nation by humiliating women, by religious discrimination, by forced religious rules, by… pic.twitter.com/yZDZvj38uH— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 12, 2025
“As long as a regime of executions, massacres, war, and terrorism remains in power, peace is at risk,” Mrs. Rajavi said, calling on the international community to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle and the courage of Iran’s younger generation.
Concluding her remarks in what she described as a “City of peace,” Mrs. Rajavi said the freedom of Iran is not only a national aspiration, but “a necessity for the whole world.”
Speech at the City Hall of the historic city of Ypres in Belgium
In the European Parliament, and now here, I repeat: The freedom of Iran is a need for the whole world.
In this City of peace, we call on everyone to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle to end the regime and the… pic.twitter.com/vRoJvb5gzu— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) December 12, 2025
