Introduction 

The following letter is written by Parvin Fahimi, well known as “Sohrab’s mother” in Iran. Fahimi is a prominent Iranian peace activist and the mother of Sohrab Arabi, a young man killed during the 2009 Green Movement protests. Then Fahimi lamented,

How soon you grew up, Sohrab!  

In these 25 days that your mother was looking for you.  

How many years did you grow up?  

The coroner’s doctor decided that even though you were 19  

They would rather put you in the “25 year olds’” album  

Because you were shot on the 25^th of Khordad (the 12^th of June)  

Open your eyes Sohrab!  

Mother is staring at your picture.

The Green Movement was largely peaceful, and in its mass participation comparable to the movements that led to the revolution of 1979; it began as an expression of non-confidence in the electoral process that elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—who ran one of the most notorious governments in history for that period—for a second term as president. Mir-Hossein Mousavi was the electoral opponent of Ahmadinejad. Mousavi, a highly regarded intellectual, architect, and artist began his political life through the Freedom Movement of Iran, a pro-democracy movement founded in 1961 against the Shah dictatorship, based on “Mosaddeghism” and the works of Ali Shariati. In 2009 Mousavi was a candidate for reform. Mousavi still remains the leader of the Green Movement and therefore under house arrest with his wife Zahra Rahnavard. 

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the renowned filmmaker wrote about the struggles of Mousavi. In fact, these very words for Mousavi can be substituted to summarise the democratic will of the Iranian people and the limits that enclosed around them in their great creative struggles for freedom—from the ‘west’, from the Shah, and the post-revolutionary arrangements. Makhmalbaf write that he,

returned to the world of artists because in a country where there are no real political parties, artists can act as a party. Previously, he was revolutionary, because everyone inside the system was a revolutionary. But now he's a reformer. Now he knows Gandhi – before he knew only Che Guevara. If we gain power through aggression we would have to keep it through aggression. That is why we're having a green revolution, defined by peace and democracy. (I speak for Mousavi. And Iran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 19 June 2009)

 As a member of the “Mothers of Laleh”, she has long been a voice for justice while resisting the instrumentalization of her grief by foreign powers. In this urgent message, she condemns the devastating “40-Day War” led by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, denouncing military aggression as a false path to democracy. She fiercely critiques the silence of Nobel Peace laureates toward the destruction of Iranian infrastructure, mass murders, war crimes and calls for a dual resistance against both domestic oppression and imperialist intervention. 

In 2009, when her son was killed by the security forces, Parvin Fahimi wrote, “Our Sohrab is not dead. It’s the government that has died.” Fahimi had pronounced that the death of her 19-year-old son killed the legitimacy of the government. Then, through this recent letter Fahimi is pronouncing the death of ‘the west’. 

 A Letter for History: To the Criminals and the Blood-Washers of Peace

I am Parvin Fahimi.

A mother from this soil, a peace-seeking mother, a mother whose son, Sohrab Arabi, was taken from her by this very sovereignty during the Green Movement. I write this letter to you: to you, Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu, and to those who received awards in the name of peace but remain silent during this hour of bombing and aggression against Iran. 

Know that I write this to be recorded in history, not to initiate a dialogue with you. 

Messrs. Trump and Netanyahu,

You two are not humans who have brought chaos to the world; you are fundamentalists who, in the name of religion, power, and wealth, have stifled life for the people of the world. Not for your own people, but for the interests of the gangs to which you belong, you attack lands, kill human beings, and destroy everything that makes life possible. 

This is the second time in less than a year that you have attacked my homeland, Iran. And once again, the same story repeats: the destruction of the land, the shedding of innocent people's blood, and a future that is being torn apart before our eyes.

You strike homes where mothers lull their children to sleep.

You strike factories from which bread reaches the tables.

You strike universities where our youth are educated to build the future.

Bridges, roads, power plants, hospitals—everything that makes life possible for a human being.

And then, shamelessly, you call it “humanitarian intervention”. 

Humanitarianism and you?

Which humans?

Which life?

Despite all the pressures you imposed on us, with sanctions that yielded nothing but filling the pockets of a few inside and outside, we were still living. We were still standing. We protested whenever we could, seeking our rights from the government. 

But you, with a decision made in advance and with the help of those who have detached themselves from this land, came and took away even the possibility of breathing and struggling. We do not want that “democracy” you promise a thousand times over—a democracy that is, in truth, called “dependency” and “colonization”. 

Neither the people of this land nor other nations of the world have ever stretched out a begging hand to you for such a thing. History is before everyone's eyes:

From Iran after the August 1953 coup to Nicaragua,

From Bosnia to Libya,

From the Afghanistan you seized and abandoned to the Iraq that has not yet emerged from the rubble,

And now, once again, Iran. 

Was all this ‘kindness’ for democracy not enough for us? 

What right do you have to decide the future of the world? 

And to you who think Iranians stand behind you, know that they are not of us. Being Iranian is not just a birth certificate. Those who dance with the flags of the Lion and Sun and Israel and thirst for blood are not our compatriots; they are a mirror of your own violence.

And of course, the people of your countries, who gave power to criminals like you, must also be held accountable for these human sufferings across the world. Just as history has never passed by the crimes of the past with indifference.

As a mother who lost her child on the path to freedom, I will never allow you to decide the future of my country.

Our children did not go so that one oppression could be replaced by another. If they were here today, they would stand with the people against you; both against internal oppression and against external aggression.

And despite all these pains and all this destruction, I still believe this: we will rebuild.

Our homes,

Our factories,

Our schools,

Our bridges.

For these people have risen like a phoenix from the ashes many times, and they will rise again. 

And as for you who carry the name of peace and wear its medal upon your chest,

Know that the prize you gained in the name of peace shall not be rightfully yours. 

You have sewn pockets for yourselves from the blood of this nation’s youth and the people of Palestine and Lebanon; you are “blood-sellers” waiting to divide the spoils after the catastrophe. Nowhere in history has peace been achieved through the path of shedding people’s blood in war. 

No silence in the face of this slaughter is justifiable. How is it that you can—and quite rightly—warn and expose concerns regarding the lives of prisoners, yet you lack the strength to speak about the war crimes in Minab and the targeting of the Pasteur Institute and the infrastructure of Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon? Surely you know better than I, but for the enlightenment of public opinion and history, it is good to remember Le Duc Tho (the Vietnamese soldier and diplomat) who was the first Asian to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 alongside Kissinger for peace negotiations during the Vietnam War. He refused to accept it alongside a criminal like Kissinger, out of respect for his people. 

How is it possible to tell Aung San Suu Kyi, regarding her crimes, to “uphold the dignity of the Peace Prize”, but then, in the name of peace, ask the likes of Trump and Netanyahu to bomb Iran?! 

If it is justified as merely a request for "precision strikes" on government heads and military-security institutions in a way that does not harm the people, it is still no justification for "blood-washing" the crime and the criminal in the name of peace. It was these very requests that draped the garment of legitimacy over this devastating war and gave criminals the opportunity to say from behind the podium: “They themselves are asking us to drop bombs on their heads!” 

How can one be a Nobel Peace Prize winner and seek help from an individual who, beyond accusation, is almost certainly a child sexual predator and is recognized in his own society as a migrant-hating, misogynistic fascist against LGBTQ rights?

How can a human rights activist essentially ask a criminal force to assassinate others? Does the rule “the end justifies the means” apply to human rights defenders as well?!

How can one win a Peace Prize and stand beside someone who, along with their supporters, constantly thanks those who commit aggression against their country, those who drop bombs on their compatriots, and those who destroy the country's infrastructure—unless one has sold their conscience for a promise of reaching power over the corpses of the people?

Who knows? Perhaps history will remember others besides the criminal Aung San Suu Kyi and Machado, Trump’s servant who dedicated her prize to a criminal—others who closed their eyes to crimes against humanity so as not to lose a worthless prize and changed colours at every moment.

History will judge whether, in the days when bombs rained down on this land, you were the guardians of peace, or the grieving mothers and wives who fought simultaneously against internal tyranny and foreign aggression and did not allow the name of “peace” to become a tool for the destruction of the homeland. 

Parvin Fahimi

April 2026