On August 30, 2025, a conference was held at the Municipality of the 17th District of Paris under the title “Iran Rising Against the Regime of Executions”, marking the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. At this conference, Azadeh Alemi, who as a child was imprisoned with her mother, a political prisoner, delivered a speech while her son was standing behind her in a show of support for her and her cause:
Madame President, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen. Today I speak on the sorrowful anniversary of the largest massacre of political prisoners, which took place in 1988. I speak on behalf of a generation born and raised in resistance, a generation that grew up with only one dream: the dream of freedom.
A Childhood in the Arms of a Prisoner Mother; A Generation Born in Resistance
Allow me to take you, for a moment, into a cold and dark cell in Evin prison.
I was a child. My only refuge was my mother’s embrace. Every night, as I fell asleep in her arms, the silence was shattered by the sound of locks. The door would open, and they would tear my mother away to take her for torture. I would be left alone in the darkness, curled under an old blanket, eyes shut tight, praying she would return, wounded, but still standing.
It was in that very cell that I learned what resistance truly means. We grew up with an unshakable certainty: freedom is not a privilege; it is a right. But we knew that this right always carries a price.
From the early 1980s, the regime took our dearest ones from us; in 1988, it committed unspeakable crimes, believing it could annihilate an entire generation of fighters, a generation that wanted only one thing: the end of tyranny and the dawn of freedom.
The Legacy of Resistance: A Voice That Has Not Been Silenced After 45 Years
Forty-five years have now passed, and we are still here—not only present, but more numerous and more determined. From one generation to the next, our parents, who faced two dictatorships—the monarchy and the clerical tyranny—passed down to us more than just memories. They left us a legacy: the legacy of resistance, the legacy of the most sacred ideal, the ideal of a free life.
Inside Iran, men and women continue to suffer in prisons for seeking freedom, while executions persist without justice and without fair trials.
Outside, we exiles have never ceased to be the voices of those who never walked out of prison alive; the voices of those who chose death over life on their knees—like my two young uncles, Hadi, 25, and Reza, 22.
It is the oppressor, not the oppressed, who determines the form of struggle
We fight for a day when no one will ever be executed, tortured, or imprisoned for their beliefs. Let us not forget that the faces of resistance were once accused of terrorism or sabotage, merely because they took up arms in self-defense against ruthless, heavily armed rulers. But as Nelson Mandela said: “It is the oppressor, not the oppressed, who determines the form of struggle.”
That is why we firmly call for support of the brave struggle carried out by the Resistance Units in the field, in the heart of Iran.
We have chosen to be the voice of our people and to support the Third Option presented by the inspiring leadership of Maryam Rajavi, someone who weakens the enemy every day and never backs down. And the generation after us has made the very same choice.
Thank you.
