05/03/2026
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I must have written and deleted this post a hundred times. I didn’t know where to begin, or which trauma caused by the Islamic Republic to start with.
Many Iranians have unintentionally become political analysts, therapists, and historians of our own pain. Growing up in Iran, I thought that was normal, but after living abroad, I realized something: many young people in stable countries rarely have to think about politics, history, or power the way we do.
In a strange way, I value this awareness. But it came through pressure, fear, and survival. From the moment we were born, religion and ideology were forced into our lives through schools, propaganda, and constant indoctrination. Many of us had to unlearn years of lies by reading, questioning, and discovering the world for ourselves. Personally, I owe a lot of that awakening to the internet and technology.
For years, many of us believed reform within the Islamic Republic was possible. We hoped the system could change. But eventually we realized—far too late—that this regime was never interested in reform. Its ideology mattered more than the lives of its own people.
Too many innocent lives were lost before we understood that.
This struggle for freedom belongs to those who took to the streets on the 8th and 9th January —those who returned home, and those who never did💔
And to everyone who, over these 47 years, has taken even the smallest step toward a free Iran.
Khamenei. Khomeini.
To hell with both of you.
And to those who still defend them; history will remember you and also F*** YOU.