MARYAM RAJAVI AND THE FIGHT FOR SEPARATION OF RELIGION AND STATE IN IRAN INU- The Iranian Regime is a theocracy based on a mutilated version of Shiite Islam, which punishes people for not adhering strictly to the state religion. This is not how Iran should be and it is not how Shiite Islam is supposed to be practised. True Islam, as Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, notes, bears hardly any resemblance to the bastardised version practised by the mullahs. Maryam Rajavi has spent the past 50 years fighting for a secular, democratic Iran and has outlined the need for the separation of religion and state in Iran in countless speeches and writings. Here, we shall summarise Maryam Rajavi’s points. Rejection of compulsory religion Maryam Rajavi explains that there is no place for compulsory religion in a modern society and notes that the medieval Sharia laws, the excommunication of opponents, and despotism dressed up as religion are actually violations ...