By Hassan Fallah

In a hot summer day in Iraq I am looking for a place to just sit down and rest after a few hours of work. Oh, I forgot to say that this is Camp Liberty in Iraq near Baghdad International Airport, and we are Iranian refugees who have been restricted to appease the fundamentalist ayatollahs in Iran. I finally reached the only cafeteria in this camp and I saw that there was a program being aired about the upcoming Iranian Resistance annual rally in Paris. I was caught off guard how this year’s gathering has come so soon. I know this event means a lot considering the status quo of the Middle East and Iran. I can even understand how much Iran’s ayatollahs are plotting to have this entire event cancelled.

In the meantime, I can’t help but think about Iranians inside the country. I can still remember the face of the young Iranian Kurdish girl Farinaz who threw herself off a four-story hotel to escape rape by an intelligence agent. And how could I ever forget the bravery of Reyhane who defended herself against a similar assailant, and then she was hanged despite international calls on Iran to cancel her execution? How can I forget the fact that a young man in Tehran set himself ablaze after learning that the price of fuel had gone up in Iran, meaning he would lose his only source of income?

I was in these thoughts when the TV showed different images of preparations in Paris and the hundreds of busses taking people to the gathering hall. These were images of last year’s enormous rally. I then thought about all those brave men and women who were executed in the ayatollahs’ dungeons. And those who are living under the fundamentalist regime’s crackdown, and how they cannot take part in this rally but their hearts and souls are with Maryam Rajavi, their fellow Iranians and international dignitaries in Paris. These VIPs, alongside Maryam Rajavi, represent the voice of the Iranian around the world.

And I can also remember this year’s rally motto: “We can and we must”. This is what Maryam Rajavi has faith in, believing with all her heart that the Iranian people will be freed one day, and that day is near.