Living In The Islamic Republic Is Like

I Would Like To Say How Much I Resent People Who Say Of The Islamic Republic That This Is Our Culture - As If Women Like To Be Stoned To Death, Or As If They Like To Be Married At The Age Of Nine.

Art Is No Longer Snobbish Or Cowardly. It Teaches Peasants To Use Tractors, Gives Lyrics To Young Soldiers, Designs Textiles For Factory Women's Dresses, Writes Burlesque For Factory Theatres, Does A Hundred Other Useful Tasks. Art Is As Usueful As Bread.

We All Had To Pay, But Not For The Crimes We Were Accused Of. There Were Other Scores To Settle.

For More Than 30 Years The Islamic Regime And Its Apologists Have Tried To Dismiss Women's Struggle In Iran As Part Of A Western Ploy.

The Revolution Taught Me Not To Be Consoled By Other People's Miseries, Not To Feel Thankful Because So Many Others Had Suffered More. Pain And Loss, Like Love And Joy, Are Unique And Personal; They Cannot Be Modified By Comparison To Others.