We are a people who know the difficulty of the road to freedom. Every event has transformed our historical mind and our methods of struggle for freedom, and today, more than at any other time in our history, we are close to making our historical unconscious conscious. I know that hope no longer finds many buyers, but I am not speaking of hope. I am speaking of a firm faith.

Mandela believed that “there is nothing like returning to a place that has not changed and discovering that you yourself have fundamentally changed,” and that “where we rise depends entirely on where we are sitting on the ground.” When I look at Iran’s younger generation, I feel with my whole being that at last we will rise from this very place where we are sitting. We will rise for life.

Aydin Areta