We were not forged in barracks, but in the quiet resistance of university hallways, under the flickering lights of exam nights, whispering solidarity while others slept. Not always brave, not always victorious, but always present.
When one of us was summoned by campus security, fear may have gripped us, but we never turned away. When thinkers and politicians were murdered for speaking the truth, we didn’t stay silent. We mourned, we remembered, and we resisted not with grand speeches, but through presence, courage, and care.
Even when a politician who stood with us was assassinated alongside his wife, we learned something vital: ideas that threaten power are not born in palaces, but in classrooms, dorm rooms, and cafés where students choose to stand up.
We cannot be silenced. The wounds we carry are not scars of defeat they are fuel. Regimes will rise and fall. Power will change its face. But we remain not just to survive, but to rebuild. Not for profit. Not for power. But because what we’ve learned together, what we’ve shared and loved, matters deeply.
We will help build a new Iran. And any future power, any party, any leadership, will need us.
So on this day, let us stand strong.
Let us never sell short the values of our universities, our solidarity, or our shared memory.
We are not just witnesses to history, we are its authors.
