On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran hosted a conference to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD 2025). The event gathered distinguished political leaders, human rights advocates, and supporters of the Iranian Resistance from over 80 countries.
Sharon Davies is a former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in three Olympic Games, the European Championships, and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games—winning an array of gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Beyond her successes in the pool, she is also a passionate advocate for fairness in sport, a respected broadcaster, and a champion for integrity in athletics.
Sharon Davies delivered a speech at the IWD 2025 event in Paris, excerpts of which are presented below.
Sharon Davies: We Hear You, We See You, and We Stand with You
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
I’m not a politician, so you’ll have to excuse me. But it’s such an honor on International Women’s Day to be here and to be surrounded by these incredible women.
Standing for Women’s Rights and Fair Competition
So, you are pretty, pretty special. I just want to give you a little bit of background, I guess, on me—because many of you probably don’t really know me or why I’m fighting for the rights of women and girls.
I won my medals in swimming back in the seventies and eighties, and I spent most of my life competing against Germans who—through no fault of their own, because of a very tyrannical system—had been pumped full of testosterone. It meant that many girls lost out on their medals. In fact, that went on for twenty years before it stopped. And it wasn’t even really stopped by the IOC—it was only stopped because the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
So, I was determined that this was not going to happen to another generation of young girls.
Now, you have to remember that women’s sport—though 51% of us around this fantastic world are women—actually gets only 4% of the money that comes into sports.
That’s all we get; the sponsorship dollar is 4%. Men get 96% of every penny and every pound that comes into the world of sports.
And just in February 2015, the IOC decided that we weren’t even entitled to fair sport anymore.
So, I thought, I can’t sit by and watch this be taken away from our young girls, who have made such big strides.
And of course, I put my head above the parapet—and I paid a very big price for it. But I would do it all over again if I had to.
The Power of Stories in Awakening the World
And so, I have heard some of your stories for a long time. But I have to say—yesterday, when I was in a workshop—I was the most blithering, crying person in the room, because the stories are just incredible.
And it’s these stories that you have to get out to people. Because most of us in the world—not in this room, because you’re politicians, okay—but most of us in the world, we don’t necessarily understand what it is to be an Iranian.
We don’t understand what it is to be that suppressed. We don’t understand what it’s like to be in a war.
We haven’t had a war in the West for eighty years.
But we understand what it’s like to be a mother and to be put in jail away from your child.
And we understand what it is to have your rights taken away from you.
So, these are the stories that you need to get out.
Now, I had lots of things written down here—about me working for ten years and you working for forty-six years—and about the suffering of your young girls, and the fact that they literally will write something on the wall or give out a leaflet, and they end up in prison.
And, goodness’ sake, they take their headscarf off, and somebody makes a phone call when they see them go by in the car.
Remembering Forouzan Abdi and the 30,000 Lost Voices
And for those simple things, they are imprisoned.
One of the things that I find quite extraordinary is that sportspeople have been particularly targeted. There was a young lady called Forouzan Abdi.
She was the captain of the Iranian volleyball team at the same time I was winning my Olympic medal.
And when I think of Forouzan, I think—that could have been me. If I had been born in a different country. Because I’m pretty outspoken, right?
So, it would have been me. And I’m so proud of what she did, and how she did her time in prison.
And when she was due to be released, they made her stay there. Then obviously in 1988, she was killed—along with 30,000 other people.
And that almost went unnoticed in the world.
Thirty thousand people is just extraordinary.
A Call for Solidarity with Women’s Rights and Athletes’ Courage
So, after the torture, the barbarism, the tyrannical regime that’s obviously in place—that treats women as third-class citizens—the spirit of my fellow athletes moved me so much that when I was asked to come today, I couldn’t possibly say no.
I’ve been fighting for sports rights for a long time, but it’s absolutely nothing compared to the rights that you guys have been fighting for—and the rights that your fantastic women in Iran have been fighting for.
I stand in solidarity with the women in Iran and all the women all over the world who are being subjugated at the moment.
Standing with Women for Freedom, Equality, and a Brighter Future
And for the brave heroines of the Resistance Units—women, resistance, freedom.
Women around the world, we are sisters in womanhood.
We must stand together to back Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for change—for a free, democratic Iran where Iranian women, just like me, can do sport, work, lead, and have a voice.
What an incredible waste of talent and human resources not to allow women to be the best that they can be—to grow their nation.
I also don’t understand that. You know, you have this resource, and you are locking it away.
Overcoming Adversity to Secure a Future of Equality and Opportunity
You can win.
So, when I started my fight against the IOC, it was an extremely difficult battle. Activists would ring every single charity I worked for, every single job I had.
They threatened my livelihood. They threatened my life. They even threatened the lives of my children.
So, I decided I wasn’t going to buckle—just like you’re not buckling.
My challenge was nothing like yours—I’m not comparing it. I’m just saying, a tiny bit of me understands how difficult it is, and that’s why I’m here today.
But what I do want to say is that after those ten years, we’ve now got six candidates for the IOC who will be elected very shortly—and every single one of them has promised to protect the female category at the Olympic Games.
Standing with the Brave Fighters for Freedom and Equality
So, what I’m saying is—you can win.
We hear you. We see you. And we stand with you.
The biggest reason I came today was to directly look down this camera and talk to the amazing Resistance Units that are in Iran, taking the most incredible risks right now.
And I want to say: every single sports movement around the world is Forouzan.
Keep fighting.
