Saman Pouryaghma, blinded in one eye after being shot while protesting, addressed the 17th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18th, 2025.
Full Prepared Remarks:
Hello everyone,
I am honored to have this opportunity to speak with you today.
My name is Saman Pouryaghma. I am 32 years old, and in 2022, Iranian Security Forces shot and permanently blinded me in my left eye.
I knew our country was rich in natural resources and wealth. But every day, I saw a different reality:
- Small children searching the trash for food.
- Elderly men and women dying because they couldn’t afford hospital bills.
- Teenagers & students arrested, tortured, and killed just for protesting the regime’s mismanagement and corruption.
How can a nation with so much oil, gas, and wealth have millions living in poverty? That’s why I have always been against the Islamic Republic. And why I joined the protests in 2022 after the regime brutally murdered Mahsa Amini just for not wearing her hijab properly.Â
My opposition to this regime did not start in 2022. For more than a decade, I actively spoke out against the Islamic Republic.
- Since 2012, I have been writing against the regime on Facebook and Instagram.
- For thirteen years, I participated in street protests.
- I stood alongside the people in four major uprisings.
On the night of October 1st, I planned to join the protests at Valiasr Square in Tehran. I was standing on my motorcycle, looking through the crowds, when I spotted a security officer from a previous protest. He was just 2 meters away, and he recognized me too because he raised his gun, and in an instant – he shot me directly in my eye.
I could barely see, blood gushed out of my eye. But I sped away on my motorcycle and escaped to the hospital. While I waited for the doctor, I took a video of my face, blood pouring down my face, and posted it to Instagram. I was the first person to expose the regime for targeting protesters’ eyes. But I needed everyone to understand what the regime was capable of – and why we were protesting.
I knew it was risky to post the video. It was risky just to BE at a hospital! I’d heard stories of security forces dragging injured protestors away from their hospital beds. But at the same time, I desperately wanted the doctors to save my eyesight if they could. So I waited. But then, in secret, a brave nurse warned me that the hospital had already tipped off security forces to my bed, #25.
I had no choice—I feared for my life!—so the first second I was alone, I left my bed and found a consultation room to hide. Eventually, I slipped out through a courtyard and ran away from the hospital.
For few days, I couldn’t return home. I left everything behind. And just 14 days after they shot me, I fled Iran.
But my loss is nothing compared to the suffering of millions of Iranians.Â
Some people try to frame Iran’s struggle as only about compulsory hijab or gender equality.
But this is just part of thousands of problems we face every day in Iran.
I want to make one thing clear: The people of Iran do not recognize the Islamic Republic as their legitimate government. This regime does not represent us.
To the international community, I ask:
- That you cut all diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic.
- Take immediate action to free all political prisoners.
- And put maximum pressure on the regime to stop the executions.
Because this is our most important demand: The Islamic Republic must fall.
The fall of the Islamic Republic is not only necessary for the people of Iran—it is essential for global peace and security.
This dictatorship, with its support for terrorists and regional instability, is a threat to the entire world.
But there is a hope. Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is the true voice of the Iranian people. He carries the hope, vision, and unity needed to rebuild our country.
Together, we will build a free Iran—A nation where its people can finally live with dignity, justice, and peace.
We are a great nation, we will take back Iran.
Thank you so much.
