Statement by a Group of Evin Political Prisoners on the National Day of the Lion and Sun and Majidreza Rahnavard’s Birthday

In the Noble Name of Iran

The twenty-fifth of Khordad — the National Day of the Lion and Sun, and the birthday of the eternal Majidreza Rahnavard — is offered with congratulations and blessings to you, the discerning, cultured, brave, and aware compatriots of Iran and to Iranians across the world.

We, the political activists and prisoners, while commemorating this auspicious day and the memory of all the eternal defenders of the homeland, and likewise expressing our appreciation and thanks to all the directors and presenters of the people’s media who have always and ever been the voice of the people of Iran and the voice of political prisoners, ask you, dear compatriots — free of any ethnic or linguistic difference — to raise the tricolor flag bearing the emblem of the Lion and Sun throughout Iran and the world, in a display of national unity and solidarity and in commitment to the principle of preserving territorial integrity, which is the demand of all of us Iranians and has likewise been repeatedly emphasized by the Shahryar of Iran, Prince Reza Pahlavi, and the nation-building, Iran-loving Pahlavi dynasty. Celebrate and honor this day more gloriously than every year, so that the world may know that our nation is brave yet discerning, noble, and civilized.

It is a matter of sorrow that in the year 1357 (1979), in the shadow of the silence and negligence of the silent majority, our Iran became the playground of demons and fell under their occupation; otherwise our nation has never had — and does not have — any relation or kinship with the occupying regime of the Islamic Republic, and it continues its struggle until the overthrow of this corrupt regime.

A group of political activists and prisoners of Evin

Masoud Eslami-Nasab, Meysam Gholami, Morsel Ketabi, Kazem Baranlou, Morteza Faghanpour, Hojjatollah Rafei

Khordad 2585