Heroes and Heroines, by Pouran Najafi

Pouran Najafi was born in the northern city of Rasht in 1960. In 1979, in the throes of the anti-monarchical revolution and as a young student, she engaged in political activism and within a year found her lost gem in the ideals of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). She enthusiastically and tirelessly began to distribute the organization’s publications in order to raise awareness among the Iranian people regarding the new threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

She was later arrested and imprisoned at the notorious Evin prison. For five years, the mediaeval torturers of the prison tried to break her down. But it was them who would eventually tire and accept defeat in the face of this freedom fighter’s resolve and relentless quest for liberty.

The end of her prison term and the return to her family tested her resolve once again. But instead of submitting to a normal existence, Pouran chose to dedicate her life to attaining the freedom of the Iranian people. She realized that the path to freedom is paved by the PMOI, and so sought to once again join the organization after her release from prison. The PMOI was the embodiment of her ideals and broader aspirations for her homeland.

In 1987, she fled to Iraq to join her colleagues in Camp Ashraf. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces, Pouran faced yet another test. Over a decade of perseverance under the toughest of restrictions and an inhumane siege, compounded by frequent terrorist attacks by the Iranian regime and its proxies in Iraq, proved that Pouran stayed true to her promise to the Iranian people.

Pouran was slain on February 9, 2013, along with seven other heroic colleagues, when the Iranian regime’s agents and their allies in the Iraqi government fired missiles on Camp Liberty.