Green Revolution Neda

Continuing the work of those who were killed: Green revolution in Europe

Sara, 27
“I remember as a child, my parents would get these phone calls that made them suddenly angry and sad. My mother cried a lot but they wouldn’t tell me what happened – I suppose they were trying to protect me.

Today, I know that these calls were always news of family and friends who had been killed, nine of my mother's and six of my father's closest family members.

My father became one of the victims, he was shot in the 1992 "Mykonos assassinations" in Berlin as one of the Iranian opposition leaders abroad. It was an ugly, cruel murder committed by the Mullah regime - on European grounds!

But what moves me today isn't the people I’ve lost and the pain I experienced - seeing my mother suffering so much. It is not only about the obvious physical violence, torture and murder in Iran. It is about structural violence, a system that leaves no room for being different and that denies individual identities. 

In school, on the streets or even within your family you can’t truly be who you are. That is why I started the Network of Young Iranians  immediately after the 12th of June 2009 elections.

It is not easy to unify the Iranian exiled community. We are communists, reformists, atheists, but I am convinced that in essence, we all want the same thing. Our diversity in opinion is part of us and an expression of our belief in freedom of speech and thought.

Our activities are not about revenge for what the regime has done to us and our families. It is about continuing what those who were killed could not finish. This generation, our generation is full of courage and hope. For us, much is at stake at the moment."