On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council convened on Iran at the request of the United States, featuring a powerful address by Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad. “President Obama was looking to open the doors of diplomacy to a regime whose language of negotiating with its own people is guns and bullets,” Alinejad said. “We’ve seen this in 2019 with Pouya Bakhtiari, who was killed in front of the eyes of his mother, Nahid Shirpisheh. At the same time, President Biden was trying to keep the doors of diplomacy open, handing out billions of dollars to the regime that forced the family members to give money to the regime to take the dead body of their beloved one back. Faced with a regime using military weapons against civilians, the Iranian people are asking the world to help through actions, not back-to-back meetings and empty condemnation. We don’t need empty words.”

MASIH ALINEJAD, IRANIAN-AMERICAN JOURNALIST: Hello everyone, my name is Masih Alinejad, I am a woman from Iran. Mr. President, Excellency, members of the Council, I am honored to be invited by the United States to testify before United Nations Security Council. I am here today to warn you on behalf of millions of Iranians what is needed now to bring justice to those who order massacre in Iran is real and concrete action against a regime that do not understand the language of diplomacy. The United Nations has failed to respond with the urgency this moment demands. The Secretary General himself has not spoken publicly against the massacre unfolding in Iran. Only a written statement through his spokesperson, silence at this moment, send a signal, send a message to the killers of young protesters alongside their family members. I strongly believe that the regime in Iran heard the clear message from the Secretary General. I think the members of this body have forgotten the privilege and responsibility of sitting in this room. Secretary General, I know you hear me, I want to directly talk to you. Why are you afraid of the Islamic Republic? Millions of unarmed Iranians, innocent and unarmed protesters have been silenced with bullets, mass arrest, prison, and a total communications blackout. No internet, no cell phones, and no landlines. They put Iran in a total darkness. I am here to bring their voices here in this room. I am here to tell you that a brutal slaughter has taken place in my beloved homeland, Iran, and it will get much worse if the world do not take serious action. Iran is facing a nationwide uprising that cuts across Iran, across the society, with a clear demand to end the Islamic Republic. At the same time, a nationwide campaign by the Islamic Republic to erase it, to silence people. The protests start on December 28, sparked by collapse of Iranian currency, but immediately, immediately turned into what Iranian people call it a revolution, a total rejection against 47 years of tyranny and oppression. Protests spread to more than 100 cities and involved every layer of the societies, shopkeepers, workers, teachers, nurses, and those who wave the historic lion and sun flag, and those ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Baluch, all other minorities, men and women, shoulder to shoulder in the streets. When it comes to freeing Iran, I have to say that loud and clear, that all Iranians are united. From Tehran to Tabriz, to Rash, to Ahvaz, from major cities to small towns and villages that we barely even heard the names of those small towns and villages in the media. They are in the street. Millions of Iranians flooded into the streets, demanding that their money stop being stolen and sending to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to Houthi, the money of the workers, the money of innocent people who do not have now the capability of to buy a bread. The entire nation looking at freedom right now. What followed was regime using military weapons, AK-47, against innocent people. According to Iran International Media Broadcasting, the death toll has passed more than 12,000. Just a day later, CBS reported more than 20,000 people have been killed and they are not the numbers, they are not the statistics. We don’t even know the real numbers. Citizen journalists from inside Iran have sent videos showing piles and piles of body bags on the top of each other. Iranians exiled. Because of the internet shutdown, they zoom in to make sure whether their relatives and their beloved ones are on the body bags or not. I myself have received urgent phone call and phone messages from Iranians thanks to Starlink inside the country asking outside world for urgent help. They welcome when President Trump offered to rescue unarmed people being shot in their heart, in their chest by the security forces inside Iran. One activist who cannot be named for his safety told me, the streets are full of dead bodies. They are finishing, they are finishing off the injured in the street. They told me the security forces have stormed to hospitals and taking away the injured. I have also received multiple messages from families of victims who say the security forces forced them to pay money to take the dead body of their beloved one to bury them. On January 8th, 2026, the Islamic Republic shut down the internet and imposed a technical blackout not to stop protest because people are fed up and they are in the streets anywhere but to hide their crimes, their brutality. This was not a technical mistake or failure, it was deliberate. When a regime turns off the internet during mass killings and at the same time, the leaders of the same regime using the privilege of freedom of speech on social media to mislead the rest of the world, it is not about restoring order, it is about destroying the evidence. If it was not for Starlink inside Iran, we couldn’t have been able to have even these informations. The Islamic Republic does not limit its crimes within its own borders. They kill their opponents at home and target those who expose their brutality abroad, here, even here on U.S. soil and every corner of the world, in Europe, in Canada, in Australia, everywhere, and they are not alone. This is called transnational repression and the Chinese government helping them, Venezuelan dictators are helping them, Russian mobsters being hired by the Islamic Republic to target their dissidents and opponents beyond their own borders. I now address the representative of the Islamic Republic directly. You have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassin with my own eyes in front of my garden in my home in Brooklyn, in United State of America, in the courthouse. I have seen my would-be assassin confessing that they have been hired by the revolutionary guards to end my life. My crime? Simply echoing the voice of innocent people that you killed them. Your leader, Ali Khamenei, he ordered my killing. He said that American agent who composed the hijab to the Berlin Wall must be killed. I am that woman and I am not the agent of America. I have agency, but I am thankful to American government and the law enforcement to protect my life. And if it was not the protection of the law enforcement, I couldn’t have been here to testify for millions of people who are facing the same killers, facing the same terrorist regime in my country. Yes, protection matters. Unfortunately, I live with survivor’s guilt because many Iranians do not have the same protection. The same IRGC with the same AK-47 killed them in front of the eyes of their family member. Two would-be assassins received 25 years prison sentence here in New York, and I’m going to face two other killers being hired by the Islamic Republic in March. And they are the one who were assigned by the same IRGC member to assassinate President Trump. The Islamic Republic rules through fear. It makes people disappear from public life, from memory, from history. So today, I want to record the names of those who refuse to be afraid and erased. Satayesh Shafiee, 20 years old. Before the internet was cut, she wrote on her social media, they are cutting off my internet, but I love you all. She was killed by the Islamic Republic IRGC. Rabin Moradi, 17 years old, shot in the back, a young football player. He was killed by the same IRGC. Mehdi Zatparwar, a popular athlete. He wrote on his Instagram before going to the street, I know I may be killed, but I have no fear. I want my rights. He was killed by the same IRGC. Siavash Shirzad, 30 years old. His family begged him not to go to the streets because of his safety. He said to his family, I go to the street to celebrate the victory of our revolution because President Trump promised to rescue our lives. He was killed by the same IRGC. Negin Qadimi, 20 years old. She died in her father’s arms after being shot by the IRGC member. This, I feel guilty that I don’t name the rest. The list of names goes on and on. They knew they would face guns and bullets, but they wanted justice. So now let me name their killers. Ali Khamenei, who declared protesters would be put in their place. Judiciary Chief Ghulam Hussain Mohseni-Ezraei and the IRGC commanders who publicly vowed punishment would be maximum. Ali Larijani, who promised no mercy for those who questioned the regime while his own daughter, his own family live here in the United States of America. They don’t deserve to enjoy the privilege of freedom in America. Like the other children and relatives of the Ayatollah saying death to America, their relatives live here in America. Three years ago, another Iranian human rights defender stood here in this room to warn you about another nationwide protest, Women, Life, Freedom, after the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini for the crime of simply showing a bit of her hair. How many women are sitting here? You could easily get killed simply for showing your hair. Mahsa got killed. That sparked a revolution. And women and men shoulder to shoulder took to the street. More than 700 people got killed. We have seen this before. We have more names to remember. In 2009, Neda Agha Sultan, symbol of more than 100 people who got killed, they named President Obama to protect them. President Obama was looking to open the doors of diplomacy to a regime whose language of negotiating with its own people is guns and bullets. We’ve seen this in 2019 with Pouya Bakhtiari, who was killed in front of the eyes of his mother, Nahid Shirpisheh. At the same time, President Biden was trying to keep the doors of diplomacy open, handing out billions of dollars to the regime that forced the family members to give money to the regime to take the dead body of their beloved one back. Faced with a regime using military weapons against civilians, the Iranian people are asking the world to help through actions, not back-to-back meetings and empty condemnation. We don’t need empty words. People of Iran are telling you the Islamic Republic no longer can be reformed and asking you that the Islamic Republic no longer be treated as a legitimate government. Today, the number of those killed is much higher than I told you. This regime, again and again, cannot be reformed. Let me be very clear. The Islamic Republic behaves like ISIS and the Islamic Republic must be treated like ISIS. This is how you can save lives. Thank you so much.

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