By Nasrin Feizi, Camp Liberty
A global campaign has targeted the recent crimes of the mullahs’ regime in Iran against women with widespread denunciations. Condemning the medieval crime of acid attacks on women under the mullah-fabricated pretext of improper veiling on one hand, and the execution of a heroine who defended her dignity in the face of a security agent of the mullahs’ regime on the other, remain in the media and continue being condemned by US and European officials.
Coinciding with these condemnations, however, day by day pressures on Liberty residents are increasing. Iraqi forces stationed in Camp Liberty are even preventing Liberty residents from using their own forklifts and other equipment to carry heavy loads. And we Liberty residents, men and women, young and old, have no other choice but carry these loads with our bare hands and on our own shoulders.
Truly, with the mullahs’ crises increasing, why are they not only intensifying crackdown inside Iran, but also, at the same time, increasing various types of conspiracies to annihilate their opposition in exile that is already under siege, pressure and various types of physical and psychological tortures? We Iranian dissidents are in Camp Liberty, adjacent to Baghdad International Airport. In contrast to even the laws of war, the Iraqi forces are going as far as preventing our patients from having access to medicine and medical care, to the point that it has led to the deaths of many… why?
The answer is quite obvious. The Iranian regime knows very well that we Liberty residents are the voice of the burned women who have been the victims of the recent wave of ISIS-like acid attacks. We are the voices of those who have been unjustly hanged, heroines like Reyhaneh Jabbari.
Liberty residents are the same individuals who have for the past 35 years been the first victims of these crimes and executions. Recently, the French judiciary has recognized the Iranian Resistance’s legitimacy and Liberty residents are members of this resistance. However, we remain deprived of access to the most basic living necessities because the camp is managed by Iraqi security forces that pursue the Iranian regime’s plots and conspiracies. The Iranian regime knows very well that when it attacks an Iranian woman with acid, more than those burns, this is the hearts of Liberty residents that burn and flames of resistance and their efforts for freedom in Iran rage with more power. It is for this very reason that in line with acid attacks and executions and other crimes by this regime inside Iran, the mullahs have no choice but to increase the pressure, siege and prison making measures in Liberty because these two pillars of crackdown and crimes are two sides of one coin.
As a woman burning inside for the victims of recent crimes of the mullahs’ regime in Iran, and an individual who has sacrificed everything to save the lives and dignity of my nation, I say to the UNHCR, UNAMI and the US government, all being accountable about my status and that of all Liberty residents: don’t turn your backs on human rights violations and basic rights of refugees in Camp Liberty and take measures to lift the pressures and inhumane siege enforced on this camp.
End the medical siege in Liberty and pressure Iraqi officials to provide the means for Liberty residents to have free access to life necessities needed for refugees.
Only then will you actually have taken a step in uprooting the mentality behind acid attacks and executions.
Iran Liberty 