Message for the New Academic Year 2024-2025

Maryam Rajavi: The Most Profound and Noble Choice of This Inquisitive and Rebellious Generation Remains the Pursuit of Freedom

Students, scholars, esteemed teachers, and professors,
At the start of this academic year, as in every year of our resistance, the first lesson is the lesson of freedom.
Freedom from ignorance, coercion, and servitude; and freedom from gender and religious bondage.
To attain freedom, we must fight tyranny. This is the battle between the God of liberty and the tyrant enemy of freedom.
It is the struggle of the freedom fighters against the regressive rule of the clerical regime.
Salutes to the millions of high school and university students — a generation that is curious, freedom-loving, and rebellious.
Salutes to the community of educators and professors who have never bowed to the oppressive domination of the clerics.
And salutes to the brave souls in Iran’s schools and universities who continue to resist and stand tall, even within the prisons of the clerical regime.

Schools and Universities: Strongholds of Freedom

The uprising of the Iranian people in 2022 demonstrated that, despite four decades of oppression and repression, schools and universities in Iran remain bastions of freedom.
This past summer, a year after the uprising, many professors and students were dismissed on Khamenei’s orders.
Over 70,000 teachers have been expelled from schools, and 20,000 principals have been either transferred or removed from their positions.[1]
Since Khomeini’s anti-cultural coup in 1980, the regime has repeatedly conducted widespread purges, yet it has consistently failed in its attempt to regressively reshape Iran’s educational system and stifle movements of protest.
May this academic year witness the protests and strikes of high school and university students, along with teachers, rise to new heights, and may all our fed-up fellow citizens, especially workers and nurses, stand with them and rise up.

Self-Sacrifice and Devotion of the Young Generation

Fellow compatriots,
It’s common knowledge that each year, a significant portion of the budget is allocated to the regime’s warmongering activities, including the production of missiles and drones, funding of proxy groups, and an anti-patriotic nuclear weapons program.
Yet, when it comes to education, healthcare, insurance, public services, and national development, they claim there is no money left in the coffers.
As a result, our children in underprivileged areas are forced to attend classes in tents, shanties, dilapidated rooms, or makeshift structures. Many students face nutritional deficiencies, most of their teachers live below the poverty line, and each year, at least one million students are compelled to drop out due to their families’ dire financial situations.[2]
In universities, inspections, repression, and harassment by security agencies—especially the Herasat, the representatives of the Supreme Leader, and the anti-popular Basij—have shackled students.
Three million two hundred thousand university students,[3] tens of thousands of professors,[4] millions of graduates,[5] seventeen million[5] students, and around one million teachers and educators[6] seek a way of life and a society that bears no resemblance to the conditions under the clerical rule.
They are all weary of imposition and coercion, from the rising students in high schools and universities to the honorable teachers who have repeatedly engaged in strikes and protests.
They stand in defiance of anything that carries the mark of the ruling regime.
This is a generation of inquisitive minds. They yearn to be the architects of their futures, choosing the lives they wish to lead, the paths they wish to follow, the fields of study or professions they wish to pursue, and the goals for which they strive.
Yet, their most profound and noble choice remains the pursuit of freedom.
It is this very choice that empowers Iranian students to stand resolutely against tyranny and the repression of liberty, consistently striking fear into the hearts of Khomeini and Khamenei.
Their long lines among the caravan of martyrs for freedom speak to this very truth. The epic of September 27, 1981, which immortalized the slogan “Death to Khomeini” in Iran’s movement for freedom, stands as a testament to the indelible sacrifices of this generation.
They have taken on the sacred mission of liberating Iran.
They have raised the banner of a free Iran for tomorrow, and their selflessness and relentless struggle within the ranks of the just resistance of the Iranian people will ultimately lead to victory.
As Massoud Rajavi has stated, “We must first look to our own hands and the potential and actual capabilities we possess… Rights, justice, and freedom are not given free.”
We must embark on this journey with unwavering determination, prepared for every challenge we face, and driven by a resolute spirit as we cross the sea of suffering and blood to achieve our goals.
It is with this conviction that we declare freedom to be the inevitable destiny of the Iranian people and their vanguard and that they rightfully deserve to triumph.

Education in Tomorrow’s Free Iran

Fellow citizens,
A free Iran of tomorrow will be defined by an educational system grounded in freedom, democracy, and equality.
It will provide advanced education that is both free and mandatory for all children of Iran.
It will feature a credible higher education system based on academic freedom and a comprehensive sports system that allows for equal and unrestricted participation in various athletic pursuits.
In this educational landscape:
All compatriots from diverse nationalities within Iran will preserve their cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, speaking and promoting their mother tongues.
Students of all genders and backgrounds, regardless of nationality, belief, or socio-economic status, will enjoy equal opportunities in education, higher learning, and employment.
Teachers and professors will have the freedom to teach and conduct research without limitations, reclaiming their rightful social and political status.
Young people will learn the principles of democratic life, particularly the values of gender equality while fostering mutual respect, tolerance, and restraint toward the beliefs and religions of others. They will embrace selflessness for the benefit of society and develop the skills necessary for political engagement.
Indeed, we aspire to a new order founded on freedom, democracy, and equality.
The catalyst for this profound transformation is you, the aware and freedom-loving youth of Iran, and I call upon all of you to rise up to establish a free and democratic Iran.
Salutes to the students,
Salutes to the teachers and professors,
Long live freedom.

[1]  Etemadonline.ir, 14 juillet 2024

[2]  Agence officielle Tasnim, 12 janvier 2023

[3] IRNA, 30 juin 2024

[4] ISNA, 1 novembre 2023

[5] Didban-e Iran, 11 septembre 2024

[6] Iran Online, inn.ir,15 octobre 2023