I AM WRITING this as an Iranian living in exile in Ireland, grateful for the freedom I can breathe here and burdened by what that freedom represents.

I can speak openly. Millions of people inside Iran cannot.

They know that a sentence spoken too loudly, a video shared, or a protest attended can lead to arrest, torture, psychological abuse, or death.

For nearly five decades, the Islamic Republic has governed Iran not through consent but through fear.

Iraqi Shiite in Tehran mourn Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a US airstrike this week. He ruled with an iron fist, presiding over oppression, torture and international interference. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

That fear is not abstract. It is enforced through arrests in the night, interrogation rooms, coerced confessions, public executions and the criminalisation of ordinary life, particularly for women, students, journalists, artists and anyone who refuses to perform loyalty.

The grief of a generation

Internationally, Iran is often discussed as a geopolitical problem: nuclear negotiations, regional alliances, diplomatic balance. For Iranians, it is a lived trauma. Nearly nine million Iranians now live outside the country, not because they wanted to abandon their homeland, but because the state made normal life impossible.

Exile is not freedom without cost. You may be physically safe, but you live with constant fear for those you love. Many exiles lost parents while abroad, unable to return safely, unable to secure visas for visits, unable even to grieve properly. You live with freedom, but your heart remains injured, tied to a country that continues to punish those you care about.

Inside Iran, repression is systematic. Journalists, filmmakers, writers, lawyers, professors and activists are targeted precisely because they document, analyse and question.

Many are sent to Evin Prison, a site repeatedly documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,........

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