Free Iran
Floor Speech
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Mr. WEBER of Texas. Hoyle).
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Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that tonight I rise to speak as we continue to examine what is unfolding before us. It is important to remember that the fight for the Iranian people is not some distant, unfamiliar struggle. In many ways, it echoes the very heartbeat of our very own American story.
Long before America became the beacon of liberty it is today, we were a people under the heavy hand of those who believed power belonged to rulers, not citizens. Our Founders knew what it meant to challenge an authority that refused to listen. They understood what it meant to stand up, too often alone, and declare that sovereignty belongs to the people.
They risked their livelihoods, Mr. Speaker, their reputation, their families. They risked everything so that future generations might inherit a nation grounded in rights, not repression, but grounded in freedom.
Mr. Speaker, that spirit is alive today in the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and more than 1,000 towns and villages across Iran.
We often talk about the American Revolution, but we rarely pause to recognize what it really was: a movement of ordinary people who refused to accept that their destiny would be decided for them by somebody else. They believed they had a God-given right to shape their future, and that is precisely what the people of Iran believe today.
The parallels runs deep, deeper than we sometimes see.
When America endured the Great Depression, it was a time of doubt, fear, and uncertainty. But leaders like Franklin Roosevelt reminded the American people that despair is never destiny. Let me repeat that. Despair is never destiny. He told them that courage, unity, and faith could rebuild an entire nation from the brink of ruin.
Mr. Speaker, today the Iranian people are living through their own era of hardship--economic collapse, political oppression, and constant fear. Yet, they continue to stand, continue to march, and continue to hope. When the free world faced aggression in the 20th century, voices like Winston Churchill refused to surrender to hopelessness. He spoke truth when others stayed silent. He strengthened resolve when others faltered. He understood that a single courageous leader speaking plainly, boldly, and without apology could ignite the moral energy of millions.
We are seeing that in Maryam Rajavi right now, and I will talk more about that in just a minute.
The same need exists today for the Iranian people: leaders like her who speak truth and nations that stand firmly with her and behind her.
Perhaps the strongest parallel of all comes from our own civil rights movement, a time when America confronted its deepest flaws, yet emerged stronger, more just, and more faithful to its founding ideals.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said: ``The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.''
That arc bends when brave people stand up. It bends when people refuse to be silenced. It bends when free nations lend their voices to those who have been denied one.
Mr. Speaker, that is what we are witnessing in Iran today: a movement not controlled by foreign powers, not directed by political elites, but born from the ordinary people of Iran, who simply want the dignity that God intended for them.
Mr. Speaker, I will say this plainly: The return of sovereignty in Iran will come from the Iranian people themselves. They will write their own destiny. They will determine their own future. America must stand with them, not to orchestrate their path but to affirm it, and not to impose our own will but to support their right to express theirs.
That is why I am behind Maryam Rajavi. We know from our own history that when people rise for freedom, the greatest thing the free world can do is stand beside them.
Mr. Speaker, she has a 10-point plan. I will read that 10-point plan.
One, rejection of the velayat-e faqih, absolute cleric rule: affirmation of the people's sovereignty in a republic founded on universal suffrage, as well as pluralism.
Two, freedom of speech, freedom of political parties, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press and the internet: dissolution and disbanding of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC; the terrorist Quds Force; plainclothes groups; the unpopular Basij; the Ministry of Intelligence; the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution; and all suppressive patrols and institutions in cities, villages, schools, universities, offices, and factories.
Mr. Speaker, we heard the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hoyle) speak about women getting their rights and girls getting their rights. Madam Rajavi is fighting for the rights of women, girls, and men, too, by the way.
Three of the 10-point plan is a commitment to individual and social freedoms and rights in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: disbanding all agencies in charge of censorship and inquisition, and seeking justice for massacred political prisoners, prohibition of torture, and the abolishment of the death penalty.
Four of the 10-point plan, separation of religion and state, and freedom of religions and faiths.
Five, complete gender equality in the realms of political, social, cultural, and economic rights, as well as equal participation of women in political leadership, Mr. Speaker; abolishment of any form of discrimination; the right to choose one's own clothing--figure that out, how simple that should be, the right to choose one's own clothing freely; the right to freely marry and divorce; the right to obtain education and employment; and prohibition of all forms of exploitation against women under any pretext.
Six, an independent judiciary and legal system, consistent with international standards based on a presumption of innocence, Mr. Speaker: the right to defense counsel, the right of appeal, the right to be tried in a public court, full independence of judges, abolishment of the mullahs' sharia law, and dissolution of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts.
Seven, autonomy for and removal of double injustices against Iranian nationalities and ethnicities consistent with the NCRI's plan for the autonomy of Iranian Kurdistan.
Eight, justice and equal opportunities in the realms of employment and entrepreneurship for all the people of Iran in a free-market economy: restoration of the rights of blue-collar workers, farmers, nurses, white-collar workers, teachers, and retirees.
Nine, protection and rehabilitation of the environment, which has been absolutely massacred under the mullahs.
Finally, 10 of her 10-point plan, a nonnuclear Iran that is also devoid of weapons of mass destruction: peace, coexistence, and international and regional cooperation.
Mr. Speaker, I can't say it any better than what Maryam Rajavi has said. This matters for even our security. It matters for regional stability, absolutely. Most importantly, it matters because America has always believed that human liberty is not a Western idea and not an American idea; it is a universal truth.
A sovereign Iran built by its people, powered by its people, and accountable to its people would be a force for stability, not chaos. It would be a force for prosperity, not destruction. It would be a force for hope, not despair.
The stories of the Iranian people today sound strikingly similar to the stories of the American people throughout our history: resilient, courageous, unwilling to surrender to tyranny, and determined to leave a better world for their children.
Mr. Speaker, history shows us this: When people demand sovereignty, and the free world supports them, the world changes. It happened in 1776. It happened throughout Europe in the darkest days of the 20th century. It happened in the movements for justice and equality on our own soil, and it can happen again for the people of Iran.
Mr. Speaker, that is our prayer. That is our thought for today. I yield back the balance of my time.
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