Iranian human rights activist Lily Moo, in a Thursday interview with Kan, discussed how the “inhumane… atrocities” of October 7 were not shocking to her in light of similar violations she had seen committed by the Islamic Republican of Iran.
“We warned the international community about the atrocities that are yet to fall upon Israel at the hands of the Islamic Republic,” Moo stressed. “If we do not stop them now.”
Asked what she was doing in Israel, Moo said she was “fighting the fight the rest of the world should also be calling out for and fighting.”
Moo, alongside other women from across Europe, is visiting Israel as part of a delegation by ELNET Europe. The main objective of the delegation is to fight against the use of rape as a weapon of war, she explained, referring to Hamas’s use of sexual violence during its October 7 attacks.
Women's rights and UN complicity
The interviewer also asked Moo what she thought about the clip of Hamas terrorists speaking with captive female IDF observers and threatening them with pregnancy.
Moo answered that she had seen this level of “wild, demon, inhumane form of treatment” in the Islamic Republic. She recounted how, in November of 2019, the Islamic regime raped, mutilated, and murdered men, women, and children in Iran - dumping their bodies in the streets.
An international tribunal was held on the atrocities, which the now-deceased Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was a part of, according to Moo. She expressed disgust that Raisi was given diplomatic immunity to go on a trip to the United Nations “after killing Mahsa Amini.”
“Mahsa Amini simply existed as a woman, and she was killed,” said Moo. “She wasn’t resisting. She wasn’t holding paper. She wasn’t pulling her scarf up. She was walking with her brother.”
Moo totaled the number of civilians killed by the regime during the three days as 1700, with a total of 3500 killed.
“There are people denying the atrocities of October 7th," she said. "There are people who are not willing to look for all the clues that are in front of them. There are people who have continuously ignored the plea of Iranians, and the fact that all of these atrocities happened, reported into the international media, fallen on deaf ears…”
Moo continued to discuss how diasporic Iranians warned international organizations what would happen if Iran was left unchecked.
“The Islamic Republic has been on its last leg,” and every time the regime “feels cornered, they attack Iranians, they attack the civilians of Iran," she added.
"They rape and pillage our people. They open fire on the houses of people in poorer cities. And then they put up all these crazy rhetorics about ‘Oh, if different cities are uprising, it's because they’re uprising against each other. They want to separate Iran….’ No! Iran is, in every way, united…” Moo asserted.
The Iranian activist repeatedly referred to Raisi as 'The Butcher,' in reference to his nickname ‘The Butcher of Tehran.’ She described “the glorious incident” of his death, saying it gave her “new hope.”
“This shadow of death is now lifted. As much as the ones who’ve been keeping that umbrella, holding the shadow of death all over the fate of Iranians, those who’ve been holding the umbrella are still around, but their hands are going to be cut off soon. They’re also going to meet their doom soon.”
Asked if she meant Iran’s supreme leader, Moo affirmed, “Absolutely.”
Addressing the silence held for Raisi by the UN Security Council, Moo said the security council had much to answer for. She highlighted the irony of charging Iran with the responsibility of heading the UNSC for women’s rights after the sexual abuse it employed against Iranian women.
Moo charged that not only had Iran created the conflict in Israel and Gaza but that it was using the conflict to cover up the oppression of the Iranian people.
She noted that her perspectives were not fringe, and that on October 8, Iranians were calling out in empathy with Israel. She said that footage to the contrary and pro-Hamas rhetoric in the West is Iranian propaganda.
The activist also called out the BBC and CNN for sharing anti-Shah propaganda, which she alleged enabled Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to hold power.
The biggest enemy of the Iranian regime is a free woman, Moo stated, adding that there was silence on the Muslim women murdered by Hamas on October 7. She continued by speaking about how hard it was to see the site of the Nova festival massacre in Re’im.
She said that the scenes of the Nova festival were particularly difficult to see because they resembled so many of the underground raves held in Iran.
“Every once in a while, even if they have paid every single bribe that they had to pay in order to know that they are going to be safe in that party, a few buses of IRCG, Hezbollah, and Basii could pull up any moment. Carnage on those kids who are at that party. If they go to the hospital after those rapes, they could go to prison. Nobody talks about that.”
She went on to say that despite accusations Israel was losing the propaganda war against Hamas, Israel would win with truth. “You will rise with truth and only truth,” she told the interviewer.
Moo called out "TikTokers in the West" for "giving up all of their liberties, thinking they were fighting for freedom" and encouraged them to listen to young people from Iran.
She concluded the interview with the warning that, without intervention, "the West is Next" and that she would believe Israeli women.