It is not easy to be Iranian in 2026, neither inside the country nor beyond its borders. The dread of war compounds the grief for lives lost in the streets, and beneath it all burns a deep, unrelenting hatred for the terrorist Islamic thugs who seized power and never let go. No mind can fully grasp all these pieces and arrange them into something coherent, least of all the Iranian patriots who want nothing more than prosperity, peace, and freedom from the lethal chains of the Islamic regime.
It is not easy to watch your hometown burn and feel nothing toward those who lit the match. It is not easy to see fighter jets fly across the sky above you and not feel the primal urge to defend what is yours. No one, anywhere in the world, wants to see their home invaded and turned to ash, regardless of who stands on the other side. I can feel the increase in defensive sentiments rising inside Iran, and the daily, bone-deep fear of living under the shadow of falling bombs.
But here is what must also be said: Iran was already under invasion, though in a relatively quiet and superficial peace. Cities were not bombed every day, but people were being suffocated by oppression, hopeless by poverty and isolation, held captive by a gang of religious fanatics who never served Iran for a second. For decades, these captors plundered the Iranian people and their natural resources to fuel a fanatical, apocalyptic agenda – anti-human, antisemitic, and hungry for dominion. For decades, they seeded terror and manufactured instability across a region that could so easily have flourished. Their core ideology is irreconcilable with peace, freedom, or prosperity. Their ambition is nothing less than global subjugation, to eradicate Western freedom and democracy and replace it with their own barbaric, dictatorial, anti-human sharia law. They are not merely Iran’s enemy. They are the ultimate enemy of humanity itself.
Iran was not free before this war. The Iranian people were not free. They were held captive by the IRGC, the regime’s most obedient and bloodthirsty hound, unleashed only on its own people. And yet, even in chains, people never stopped fighting. They shouted their aspirations into the open air again and again, for over two decades, and each time they were silenced with brutal, calculated force. Thousands of lives were taken. Thousands more were broken.
That’s why many of our people welcomed the attacks and hope it can finally bring this murderous Islamic regime to its knees.
I understand the confusion. I live inside it myself, every single day. I understand how my freedom-loving compatriots are pulled in opposing directions, clinging to the fragile hope that their captors will bleed and weaken under attack. They hold onto the belief that America and Israel are not at war with the people, but with the captors. They celebrate every time a senior IRGC general is killed. They celebrate the sight of the regime’s missile arsenals going up in smoke, because those missiles were never used in defence of the Iranian people. They created misery in support of an ideological establishment built on our bones.
In the midst of this war, my deepest hope is that the regime collapses from within, that it fractures, loses its grip, and falls into irreversible disarray. That IRGC forces lay down their arms and surrender, or otherwise face death – the very fate they brought upon our people. I wish for a fallen regime to give way to a democratic referendum, the one we have always deserved. I wish for every nation in the free world to sever its ties with the bloodthirsty Islamic captors of Iran, and turn instead toward our people; Our peace-loving, resilient, and beautiful people. It is time for the world to break its silence, to choose action over negligence, to step forward and stand with us.
If this war ends today with the regime still in place, our suffering will only deepen. The Islamic regime was like a violent, psychopathic stepfather who beat his children without remorse, and that is precisely why our people cried out for help, to neighbors near and distant alike. So, let me ask you plainly: would you stand by and say nothing while the children next door are being slaughtered?
Whatever this war’s outcome, the Iranian fight for freedom does not end here. It has never ended. The final victory will come on the day a free ballot box determines our nation’s fate, chosen by our hands, not imposed by theirs. We will not stop until that moment arrives. And I believe, more than ever, that it has never been closer than it is today.
May you and your loved ones be surrounded by light, warmth, and peace.
April 1, 2026 – Charlottesville
