Otusa Farahani (she/her)

Today at the UN, I spoke about a hard truth: True justice does not defend the humanity of children in one place and ignore it in another. I am devastated for families in Iran whose daughters left for school and did not return home. For parents in Gaza who buried their children beneath the rubble of their classrooms. For Afghan girls living under the brutal Taliban regime for nearly five years. The Taliban have built a system that removes women and girls from education, work and public life. This is gender apartheid, and it is time for the world to recognise it and act to end it. Speeches do not protect girls. But law, accountability and political courage can. malala.org/news-and-voice…

Ali Khamenei is dead. Yesterday was an incredible day for many Iranians, including me. But Iran is not yet free. Over the course of 47 years, first as president and then as Supreme Leader, Khamenei presided over the murder, torture, and imprisonment of Iranians. But he also oversaw the systematic destruction of Iran itself — a nation filled with people who embody what I believe to be the greatest culture in the world. He targeted Iran’s minority communities with a ruthlessness that was breathtaking but not surprising, given how this regime was established. Under his leadership, the regime subjected entire groups to systematic discrimination, imprisonment, execution, economic exclusion, and cultural erasure. This included the incredible Baha’i people of Iran, against whom he pursued a campaign of destruction that mirrored what the Nazi regime did to Jews before the Holocaust, stripping them of education, livelihoods, property, legal protections, and basic human dignity in a calculated effort to push them out of public life. It included Baluchis, who faced disproportionate executions and severe economic marginalization; Kurds, who endured military crackdowns and political repression; Ahwazi Arabs; Sunni Muslims across multiple provinces; Gonabadi dervishes; Christians; and Iranian Jews, who lived under constant scrutiny, intimidation, and institutionalized discrimination. In the month before his death, he authorized the industrial-scale slaughter of Iranians fighting for their freedom — one of many occasions on which he gave the IRGC license to turn military-grade weapons on his own people, young and old. His actions not only inflicted immeasurable suffering on Iranians; they tarnished the reputation of a great people, at home and around the world, with the stain of death, corruption, and tyranny. Iranians are the heirs of one of history’s great civilizations; yet for forty-seven years, first as president and then as Supreme Leader, Khamenei systematically worked to dismantle that legacy and suppress the potential of the Iranian people. He destabilized the entire region. The blood of Syrians, Yemenis, Israelis, Iraqis, Lebanese, and Palestinians is on his hands. Through the arming and financing of militias and terrorist organizations, the export of revolutionary ideology, and the waging of proxy wars, he entrenched cycles of violence far beyond Iran’s borders. Entire societies were dragged into prolonged conflict and destruction as a direct consequence. But do not buy into the idea that his death guarantees freedom for Iranians. As I have said many times, and I am far from alone in this: the Islamic Republic is vast, deeply entrenched, and structurally embedded in every major lever of power. It controls a significant share of the economy, the security apparatus, and the political system itself. Iran is also surrounded by regimes and governments that do not view the emergence of a genuinely free and democratic Iran as aligned with their strategic interests. Jumping to the conclusion that “it’s over” only harms Iranians. It creates complacency at the very moment when sustained pressure, scrutiny, and support matter most. My own family suffered repeatedly under Khamenei’s regime. How I wish so many of them, including my Uncle Samad, were here to witness this moment. LONG LIVE IRAN.

🔴 BREAKING: The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children. To all the legacy media and pro regime influencers who peddled your fake news: RETRACT and DELETE.

Iranian authorities have unleashed an unprecedented deadly crackdown to crush protests & cut all internet access to conceal their crimes. Call on the international community to urgently act to end further massacres of protesters in Iran. Act now ✊ amn.st/6017CLAAL

A day after warning of possible ‘serious consequences’ over protests in Iran, US President Donald Trump told reporters he’s been told the killing of protesters has stopped but insisted the situation would be closely monitored.

🚨 The massacre of protesters in #Iran demands global diplomatic action to signal an end to the impunity.   The evidence gathered by @AmnestyIran points to a coordinated nationwide escalation in the security forces’ unlawful use of lethal force ⬇️ amnesty.org/en/latest/news…

Killing more than 12,000 people in just a few days of protests, after cutting off the internet to hide the crime is a war crime. terrorists ruling Iran are waging war against unarmed civilians. We Iranians are heartbroken and outraged,not because we are weak, but because we are desperate to move the free world to act. The Islamic Republic is ISIS in power.. The same ISIS that used chemical attacks against schoolgirls. The same ISIS now slaughtering women, men, children, the elderly, entire families in the streets of Iran. Destroy ISIS because if you don’t, they will continue butchering people and mass arrests will turn into mass executions.

For decades, the Islamic Republic has claimed to speak for Iran. Millions are now risking their lives to prove that it does not. My latest for @NewStatesman newstatesman.com/comment/2026/0…

The protests in Iran cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy, in all aspects of public life including education. Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity. The people of Iran have long warned about this repression, at great personal risk, and their voices have been silenced for decades. These restrictions exist within a wider system of gendered control shaped by segregation, surveillance, and punishment — one that limits freedom, choice, and safety far beyond the classroom. They demand their voices be heard and the right to determine their political future. That future must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls — not external forces or oppressive regimes. I stand with the people and girls of Iran in their call for freedom and dignity. They deserve to determine their own future.

If you claim to support human rights yet can’t bring yourself to show solidarity with those fighting for their liberty in Iran, you’ve revealed yourself. You don’t give a damn about people being oppressed and brutalised so long as it’s being done by the enemies of your enemies.

🇨🇦 Toronto, Sat Jan 10, 2026 Iranians NCRI supporters rally in solidarity with #IranProtest They demand protesters voice to be heard as regime shut down internet, raids hospitals & clinic to capture protesters. At least 54 victims identified amid media blackout. Iran regime must be denied any revenue, and people right to a free, democratic republic in Iran must be recognized. #FreeIran #No2ShahNo2Mullahs @CdnPressNews #cdnpoli @CTVNews @globalnews @CBCNews @TheTorontoSun @globeandmail @nationalpost @TorontoStar @CityNewsTO

🇨🇦 Ottawa, Sat Jan 10, 2026 Iranians NCRI supporters rally in solidarity with #IranProtest They demand protesters voice to be heard as regime shut down internet, raids hospitals & clinic to capture protesters. At least 54 victims identified amid media blackout. Iran regime must be denied any revenue, and people right to a free, democratic republic in Iran must be recognized. #FreeIran #No2ShahNo2Mullahs @CdnPressNews #cdnpoli @CTVNews @globalnews @CBCNews @TheTorontoSun @globeandmail @nationalpost @TorontoStar @CityNewsTO @ctvottawa @ottawasuncom @OttawaCitizen

No Shah. No Mullah. Iranians didn’t rise up to recycle dictatorship. They rose to end it.

Canada strongly condemns the killing of protestors, the use of violence, arbitrary arrests, and intimidation tactics by the Iranian regime against its own people. We stand in solidarity with the Iranian people, whose voice must be heard, as they demand freedom and dignity.

@khamenei_ir Nobody is afraid of you. #FREEIRAN #AllEyesOnIran🦁

Last night in Tehran & some other cities, a bunch of people bent on destruction came and destroyed buildings that belong to their own country in order to please the President of the US and make him happy.

BREAKING: X to replace the Iranian flag emoji, changing it from the Islamic Republic’s flag to the old monarchy flag, the Lion and Sun flag.

@AlinejadMasih @khamenei_ir

This is a mental illness.

This is history in the making. Thousands of Iranian freedom fighters refuse to be governed by the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.