On the anniversary of the execution of the founders of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), activists and supporters in different cities of Iran posted pictures of the founders of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, Mohammad Hanif Nejad, Ali Asghar Badizadegan and Saeed Mohsen, and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The founders of PMOI founded the organization in 1965, during the Shah’s rule, as three young university graduates who had a rich history of taking part in political and social activism in Iran. Due to the Shah’s regime brutal crackdown on all dissidents and opposition, PMOI started its activities in secret. In 1971, Hanifnejad, Badizadegan and Mohsen were arrested by the Shah’s security forces and sent to prison, where they were brutally tortured.
On May 25, 1972, Shah executed all three founders of the PMOI along with two other senior members, Mahmoud Asgarizadeh and Rasoul Meshkinfam. Masoud Rajavi, who at the time was given life sentence in prison, has led the PMOI since the martyrdom of its founders.
In 1981, a short two-and-half years after the 1979 revolution, the regime of Ruhollah Khomeini banned the PMOI because of their opposition to its totalitarian rule. Security forces rounded up, imprisoned and executed thousands of PMOI members and supporters in the years that followed. The suppression of PMOI supporters in Iran continues to this day. In recent years, the Iranian regime has imprisoned and executed many people for having relations or supporting the PMOI. Relatives of PMOI members continue to linger in prison under harsh conditions.
But against threats to their lives, the supporters of PMOI manifested their support for the organization, its goals by paying their respects to the slain founders at their graves and posting their pictures on walls in different locations. 46 years after their martyrdom, their memory and legacy still lives on.
