Sahar Sana’ii, representing Iranian youths’ delegation
Remarks at IWD conference on “Women Force for Change, Iran Uprising and Women’s Role”
Paris – February 17, 2018
We are the post-revolution generation; a generation which has fully witnessed the regime’s crimes against humanity, a generation which grew up with their parents behind bars and soon came to realize the price of freedom is sometimes in sacrificing lives.
But we are a proud generation, one with many idols who paved the way for us. Those who in the summer of 1988 taught us persistence. The tireless ones in Ashraf and Liberty who never gave up fighting even for a moment. Those whose sole purpose is overthrowing the regime and liberating Iran. Those who shall never give up until they achieve this goal.
Those who taught us the Ashrafi manners, who now witness the formation of thousands of Ashrafs and bastions of rebellion throughout Iran and the world.
And of course, we are proud to say that we have many idols in our generation, too; from Neda and Asiyeh, to Nastaran and Mahdiyeh, and from Neda Aghasoltan and Taraneh to Shirin and Reyhaneh, to my dear Saba who taught us to stand till the end by the oath to God and people. Yes, we women are the force for change. And as my sister Saba said in her last words, “We stand till the end” and we will stand until we overthrow this oppressive misogynist regime and we say no to compulsory rule, religion, and hijab.
The Iranian regime has been trying to suppress and cut the wings of Iranian women with their compulsory veiling. But the role of women in the PMOI is proof to the contrary, women who with the slogan of “we can and we must” have made the impossible possible and have taught us from childhood that we should never succumb to any limitations and barriers; women whom we’ve seen love each and every marginalized woman suffering in our country; women who have sacrificed and will continue to sacrifice for their people.
The Mojahedin’s highest virtue is freedom and respect every individual’s freedom of choice. Even though the Mojahedin are Muslim themselves and have chosen hijab, they have always defended the right of women to choose their clothing, because the Mojahedin’s beliefs are rooted in their ideology of anti-suppression and their view of humans as conscious, free, and determined beings.
My message to the fundamentalist Velayat-e-Faghih regime is this: be afraid, be afraid of the day when these women will sweep you out of Iran and will throw you down history’s garbage bin.
Yes, today’s Arash Kamangir and Kaveh Ahangar (Iranian heroes) is a woman!
