Sepideh Rashno returned to the embrace of her family with a six-year suspended prison sentence.
In the text Sepideh wrote after her release, I see the wisdom, faith, hope, light and maturity of an aware campaigner.
It is one of those rare texts that nourish the soul and leave the heart hopeful for a tomorrow that the children of Iran—children such as Sepideh—will shape.

In my view, what Sepideh did can be compared, in the history of civil struggle, with Rosa Parks.
If Rosa Parks never accepted the inhuman law separating Black and white people and refused the order of a white bus driver to give her seat to a white passenger, Sepideh too courageously defended a freedom denied to her against an unjust law.

The journalist who, after Sepideh Rashno’s arrest, courageously interviewed her family and lawyer and provided news coverage for Sepideh and the justice of her case was Niloofar Hamedi.
She is the imprisoned journalist who, two months later, was arrested for reporting what happened to Mahsa Amini and, as written here, remained in prison for the integrity of her journalism.

Read below Sepideh Rashno’s memorable and deeply conscious text:

“A person who fights is afraid.
Silence, seeing their humiliation every day, the loss of freedom and dignity—these frighten them more than anything else.
A person who fights thinks about victory.
They know that their words, their actions, their wounds, their captivity and even their death are themselves victory.

A person who fights does not abandon life.
It is impossible to fight for life and abandon life.
A person who fights resists.
Sometimes taking cover is more important than exposing one’s chest.
A person who fights is yesterday’s child.
They know that if they themselves do not taste freedom, today’s children will.
A person who fights knows that revolutions take time, but they do not fail.”