In summer 2024, members of the Resistance Units across Iran sent out 20,000 messages of support for the 2024 Free Iran World Summit.

Their messages were shared on social media and broadcast via the Iranian opposition satellite television channel “Simay-e Azadi”.

These messages, primarily from young men and women across Iran, demonstrate a growing willingness to risk their personal safety and security in support of regime change.

The Resistance Units took precautions to conceal their identities in their video messages, covering their faces and hands to avoid recognition. They displayed signs vowing to overthrow the regime and photos of Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Some of them also wrote slogans on walls in support of the event.

This surge in support came despite the Iranian regime’s historically harsh treatment of those associated with the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), a key organisation within the NCRI. Thousands have been arrested in recent years for similar activities, making these 20,000 messages a significant barometer of the movement’s strength and the increasing number of Iranians willing to risk their lives for change.

The regime’s actions contradict its official stance on the PMOI‘s lack of popularity. While claiming the organisation lacks support, the regime has consistently labelled the PMOI as an existential threat and warned of its organisational prowess, determination, and persistence in the pursuit of regime change for the past 45 years. The slogan “Death to the Hypocrites” (referring to the PMOI) has been regularly chanted at any small or large official gatherings and events alongside “Death to America”.

Despite the regime’s efforts to suppress and defame the PMOI, including through infiltrating or feeding distorted narratives to Western think tanks and academia, the organisation continues to mobilise large crowds and maintain a significant presence among political prisoners.