Narges Mohammadi Calls for Immediate Ceasefire and an End to War
Narges Mohammadi Calls for Immediate Ceasefire and an End to War
To the United Nations Human Rights Bodies, Peace Advocates Worldwide, Global Media Outlets, Governments, and All Those Who Refuse to Stay Silent in the Face of War and Injustice,
A devastating and ruthless war has engulfed Israel and the Islamic Republic, leaving millions of people in both countries in a state of fear and danger. In Tehran, where I live, I have seen firsthand how countless families have been forced to flee their homes, workplaces, and schools. Civilian neighborhoods have come under direct attack, with homes deliberately targeted and destroyed.
Dozens of innocent civilians, including defenseless women and children, have lost their lives. Infrastructure and vital facilities in both countries are being destroyed. There are no limits or borders observed in these military strikes, and anxiety is growing over the possibility of Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities in various Iranian cities, especially those located near such sites. It is as though both lands have become stages for displaying the military power and weaponry of two governments.
The successive and expanding wars across the region have made the need to end war and establish peace an urgent and inevitable task.
The war between Israel and the Islamic Republic—initiated by Israel’s military attack on Iranian soil and a clear violation of international law, which must be condemned—threatens to destabilize not only the Middle East but global peace, stability, and economic security. The defenseless people of Iran are trapped at the difficult crossroad between the Islamic Republic’s war on its own people and now the war between Israel and the Islamic Republic.
I have repeatedly emphasized that the Islamic Republic is a religious, authoritarian, and misogynistic regime—incapable of reform and systematically violating the fundamental rights of the Iranian people. I have spent nearly ten years in the cells and prisons of the Islamic Republic and remain committed to the struggle for a transition from this tyranny to democracy. And now—precisely at this intersection and in such a perilous moment—I raise my voice, as a defender of peace, democracy, and human rights, to say “No to war.” I do so because I firmly believe that democracy and peace will not emerge from the dark and terrifying corridors of war and violence. War destroys the capacity and the momentum of the people’s struggle for the establishment and consolidation of democracy.
I urge you to take serious, swift, and decisive action against the blatant and unrestrained violations of international law being committed in ongoing wars across the world — especially in the war between Israel and the Islamic Republic.
I want to strongly emphasize that in these perilous times, it is imperative for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to take urgent and decisive action. The United Nations must rise to its historic responsibility and work to prevent a catastrophic escalation between two governments that lack any meaningful diplomatic ties.
There is a growing fear that in the absence of will and appropriate action from the United Nations — and with the rapid expansion of war, destruction, and the displacement of people — this global body may soon face a crisis of irrelevance and dysfunction.
I urge you to mobilize all available resources, and the cooperation of aligned states and governments, to compel both Israel and the Islamic Republic to accept an immediate ceasefire and uphold the right to peace.
Do not grant war any more opportunity for destruction and ruin. The war is accelerating.
The time to act is now.
Narges Mohammadi
