Good evening, President Rajavi, thank you for having me.  I’m not only humbled and very excited to be here but I’m also very angry.  And one of the reasons that I’m angry is because I’m disturbed at the failure of my own government and that of the United Nations to uphold their obligations that they made to the people of Camp Ashraf. [applause] They are practically supporting forcible eviction of people from their homes and it’s absolutely shameful.  Perhaps the greater injustice is that the residents are being blamed for not cooperating enough.  Can you imagine having to leave Ashraf and going to Camp Liberty and not being able to take one of those beautiful instruments with you and you’re not cooperating enough?  You don’t have water to drink, nothing to wash your clothing.  You have cameras watching you 24/7.  You have armed guards patrolling you.  You can’t even go get anything to eat without having to pass through armed Iraqi guards.  It is time for my government to adopt a new approach.  It is also time for the U.N. to be on the side of the victims and not the Iraqi government. [applause] The right thing to do is to remove the armed police to outside the camp, to remove the surveillance cameras.  It is time to respect the rights of the residents of Ashraf. 

While I would like to express my solidarity with the residents of Ashraf, I would also like to praise Mrs. Rajavi for being the voice of those residents, the voice of women in Ashraf and indeed the voice of the Iranian people in their struggle for democracy, freedom, and gender equality.  And I will leave you with one thought and it’s been a resounding theme this evening.  Women make up over half of the population; if we also held over half of the seats of power around the world, do you think it would be a different place? [applause] I think so too.  Let’s make it so.  Thank you. [applause]

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