Fereshteh

Look at me now, @PahlaviReza. Before you speak about children like me, find the courage to listen to the adult I became. We were children taken out of a war. Leaving the battlefield did not mean leaving every wound behind. Separation, grief and the struggle to build a life deserve to be understood with care. Do not turn the people we lost into a verdict on everyone who tried to keep us alive. Other survivors have the right to describe their experiences. So do I. None of us owes you a politically useful conclusion. I have grievances. More than my share. I can speak about them without handing you the authority to decide whom I must blame. My pain does not make me incapable of judgment. My support for the MEK does not make my testimony disposable. My parents wanted their children to live. I understand the effort to get us out of that war as an effort to save us. You do not get to rewrite that understanding because it obstructs your campaign. You and your wife owe the people whose suffering you invoke respect for their full humanity, including their right to reject your politics. Compassion that depends on our agreement is a demand for allegiance. I hold Velayat e Faqih responsible for the persecution that drove Iranian families into exile, separation and impossible choices. I will not let that responsibility disappear behind a campaign against my parents or the MEK. If you invoke Cyrus, begin by respecting a living Iranian’s freedom to say no to you. From where I stand, taking possession of our grief and speaking over our choices carries the instincts of an occupier. Your wife shared a slogan calling for “death to the Mojahedin.” I support the Mojahedin, @PahlaviReza. Look at my face. Then explain where I belong in your promise of a free Iran. میترا سعدی دوست @VOANews @Fahimehkhezr @AfshinEllian1 @SafaiDarya