Nazanin Boniadi Instagram – At Iceland’s Imagine Forum 2025, I delivered my keynote ‘Woman, Life, Freedom: Honoring Iceland’s Legacy, Standing with Iran’s Future’ before a remarkable audience of thinkers, diplomats, and activists—then was honored to share the stage with Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza and his extraordinary wife, Evgenia.
In April 2022, Vladimir was sentenced to 25 years in prison for criticizing the Kremlin. He spent much of the time he was detained in solitary confinement and then a penal colony in Siberia. In 2023, Evgenia and I met when she accepted the Freedom House Award on his behalf, vowing to keep fighting for his release. She kept that promise. Vladimir was freed on August 1, 2024, in a prisoner exchange with the West.
When Vladimir spoke of Putin’s Russia as Orwell’s 1984, I couldn’t help but think of Iran under the Islamic Republic. Authoritarians all play from the same rulebook. Our fight is one.
The Kara-Murzas’ integrity, intellect, and humility are rare among leaders in today’s world. As Vladimir said, “We must learn to see the human being in one another.”
Thanks to Anna Ludvíksdóttir, Director of Amnesty International Iceland, to the Imagine Forum, and to the people of Iceland for your steadfast solidarity with the Iranian people and all who resist tyranny.
At a time when glimmers of peace are emerging in some of the world’s most divided regions, gatherings like this reaffirm that courage and conscience can indeed change the course of history.
Konur, líf, frelsi.
Zan, zendegī, āzādī.
Woman, life, freedom.
Photos: @arnitorfa | Posted on 12/Oct/2025 19:46:51
