In a state-run media outlet belonging to the Iranian regime I saw picture I wanted to post in a website and below it write “No Comment” However, I felt it just wasn’t enough and the perspective of every viewer is different.

I remembered my childhood years in Tehran, near a square dubbed “Execution Square”. I had heard this name from the elders in our family many times, but I never had the guts to ask why such a name was used.

When I grew older I realized the reason behind all my people’s poverty, the corruption choking our society, and how human beings are repressed and killed for defending freedom. Back then I also used to hear from the elders that during the Shah’s rule they used to publicly hang dissidents in that square. That was when I began to despise this word and realized why the elders never explained it to me back then. They didn’t want hateful images to be encrypted in the minds of innocent children. Now, when I think about the events in my society, when I look at the cold and downhearted images, my hatred for this phrase increases significantly.

However, the above picture was very moving for me because in the eyes of a young child standing next to his mother one can see the reflection of a noose and the hanging feet of a victim.

Let’s look more precisely. In the deep eyes of this child, far more than fear and pain, one can see that hope in the future is quickly diminishing. This is the main reason why the ayatollahs in Iran carry out such gross and inhumane measures, seeking to cement fear in society. I couldn’t help but remember films about Jesus Christ’s last sufferings, when they were whipping his bodies with ferocious lashes. I came to myself and in that picture saw that on the other side of the square were women and children looking on and screaming…

Freedoms comes only with a price; one can clear the images of nooses around the necks of Iranian people and youths, or whips on Jesus’ body, from the eyes of children; but not without sacrifice. We can bring back hope in the future, love in life, the devotion to freedom in those very eyes; but it needs determination.

So, how you may ask? Through our struggle against the ayatollahs in Iran, and supporting the Iranian Resistance. We must rise to the occasion and join our voice with the Iranian diaspora’s rally on June 13 in Paris, to be the voice of the children and the oppressed in Iran. With Maryam Rajavi we must shout “Viva Freedom”. This is without a doubt in line with the lessons taught to mankind by the Son of God.

Hamid Imeni