(Wall Street Journal) Hossein Ronaghi - There have been five nationwide uprisings against the regime in our country in the past four years. Our government has slaughtered protesters and tortured political prisoners to suppress them. Yet most people in the West don't know our reality. Your Iran is defined by a pesky nuclear negotiation. Ours is much worse. It is a religious police state where we live in fear, with countless red lines that most dare not cross. I would know - I have spent six years in its jails. Dissidents are jailed for holding up photos of their murdered children. Many relatives of those killed by the regime aren't allowed to hold funerals. They often are charged a fee to have their loved one's body released or are required to pay for the bullet or rope used to kill him. You have been told that your solidarity would hurt us, that talking about our struggle would put us at risk. That is a lie. It is your silence and indifference that threaten us. Writing this could land me back in prison. But if that's the price for giving a voice to the voiceless, it will be worth it.
2021-10-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive