As the new year begins, one of the most significant topics of the world’s focus is the struggle of Iranian people. The freedom movement of the Iranian people, which has ignited like a fire of wisdom and love against the bitter 43 years of oppressive rule under the Iranian Islamic dictatorship government, has dazzled the world with its light.

This year, many people of the world, especially those in Western countries, understand the oppressive and cruel conditions under which the Iranian people have been living, thanks to the news that has come from inside Iran. It is as though they see the trends of this tyrannical regime in the pages of their own histories, when freedoms were taken for granted or were forbidden.

Today, at the beginning of a new year, we feel closer to the people of the world who stand in solidarity with us against the oppressive and despotic Islamic government, who have marched with us and have risen the flag of freedom on the streets of cities all over the world, from Berlin to Stockholm, London to Washington, D.C., from Buenos Aires to Tokyo, from Wellington, New Zealand to Seoul, Korea. Thanks to the bravery of the men and women of our land, Iran, we now stand beside the freedom-loving people of the world, singing songs of freedom and crying for the loss of lives of our youth, the young people who have selflessly become the symbol of this freedom movement. Our freedom-loving beauties and brave heroes and heroines have stood on the streets of Iran in the face of the bullets of this occupier regime. At the start of this new year, the people of the world now stand with us and shout, “Women, life, freedom,” and demand a future free from oppression, tyranny, and the Islamic government.

As an Iranian writer in exile, with a heart that is wounded by the killing of hundreds of children and young people in my country, and worried about the thousands of young people in the medieval prisons of the Islamic regime, I cry with hope for a free new year. Today, I thank people of the world and hope, as Iranians do, to join you in a healthy and happy new year. I know that our dark times will soon be over and in a not-so-distant future, we will raise our heads and celebrate our freedom with the free people of the world.

With blessings and happiness for 2023,

Shokooh Mirzadegi