I know the terrible cost of speaking out in Iran – and I beg the world to stand with those speaking out now |
It has been more than 40 years since I was imprisoned in Iran for speaking out against human rights abuses and state executions, and for defending women’s rights. I spent eight years behind bars in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. I was tortured. I remember it as if it happened yesterday.
Every few years, uprisings erupt across Iran – and each wave of resistance is deeper and more widespread than the one before. In 2022, it was women who led the Woman, Life, Freedom movement after the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the country’s “morality police”, and it revolutionised my country. Today, women wear what they want, go out in public with their boyfriends – even live with them – without fear of being arrested. Women earned these rights with their lives. In late December 2025, the spark was once again lit – this time in an old bazaar in Tehran.
The demands are the same ones we raised in the 1980s: an end to poverty, corruption and unemployment, the right to organise, and freedom from repression. Despite the gains for women’s freedoms made since 2022, workers are still denied basic labour rights. Students are arrested and even executed for peaceful protest. Women are still fighting for fundamental rights. People are still risking their lives to stand up to torture and state violence.
The regime’s response has been brutal. Human rights organisations report security forces