Statement by a Group of Survivors of 18–19 Dey (8–9 January 2026), Prisoners of the Mahsa Uprising and of Bloody November 2019

In a statement, a group of survivors of 18–19 Dey (8–9 January 2026), together with prisoners of the Mahsa uprising and of Bloody November 2019, thanked the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for awarding the Freedom Prize to the people of Iran and called Prince Reza Pahlavi their sole representative.

Full text of the statement:

“In the name of Iran

This statement comes from the grieving and hopeful people of Iran.

The people of the alleys, the bazaars and the streets.

From Lake Urmia to the Arvand River, from the heights of Kurdistan to the heart of Tehran. From a sorrowful beauty called Iran.

This statement comes from people who, in Dey [January 2026], at the command of Prince Reza Pahlavi, took to the streets alongside millions of others and survived.

With respect to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which heard the voice of our solidarity, we hereby express our gratitude.

For us survivors, awarding the Freedom Prize to the people of Iran is not merely a formal ceremony; it is the result of a forty-seven-year struggle that was ignored for years.

For a people who were hanged from the gallows, murdered in the most atrocious ways possible, who spent their lives behind prison bars and under torture, and who were never the subject of the boundless concern of the world's human rights activists, this prize shows that there are still people in this world to whom the human being, human dignity and human life matter, regardless of political and economic interests.

We thank you.

You are presenting the prize that the people of Iran won with the blood spilled on the frozen body of the street to their sole rightful representative.

Before Prince Reza Pahlavi's call, we shouted his name from every corner of this land, and after that, he answered our cry.

On the 18th and 19th of Dey [8 and 9 January 2026], we took to the streets.

We believed that we were many, and from the struggles of past years we were certain that violence would seize us;

yet even so, on those two nights, we were stunned by that countless crowd and by that naked killing and massacre.

We have read much about struggles in history and heard much about killings.

But today, unlike the past, we do not have to write history from what we have heard and read.

Today the images are clear, the facts are within reach, and what people want is plain.

Anyone, anywhere in the world, who does not see this catastrophe that has taken place in Iran has an interest in ignoring the truth, and we are aware of this bitter truth.

Prince Reza Pahlavi is our sole representative.

The one whose name more than seventy thousand people shouted before they died and left this world.

We, the people of Iran, from amid grief, death and suffocation, congratulate the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which, as the only foundation in this world, saw us, heard our voice and placed this prize in the hands of our sole representative.

We look forward to the day when Prince Reza Pahlavi, in freedom and in your presence, places this precious trust in the wounded and worthy hands of the people of Iran.

Long live Iran”

The signatures are held on file by us.