On July 13, 2019, dignitaries from dozens of countries across the world attended the main event of the Free Iran 2019 international conference. The conference was part of the five-day Free Iran 2019 series of conferences at the main headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Ashraf 3, Albania. Several dignitaries, political and human rights activists delivered speeches, issuing remarks about the struggles of the Iranian people and their resistance movement for freedom in their country.
The following are key remarks by Hadassah Lieberman at the Ashraf 3 conference.
Hadassah Lieberman:
I am very happy to be here this weekend. It’s very special. I know my husband, Joe Lieberman, has been at many, and I’ve only come to a few. And this is the first time I’ve been here. And this place is gorgeous.
I wanted to quickly take you on a little discussion about colors that represent darkness, the black, and lightness.
When I think about darkness, I think about where I was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to two parents who had fled, my mother from Auschwitz and Dachau, my father from a slave labor camp. And they made it. So I represent someone who all my life I knew, I read, I heard about all these stories of terror and execution and deaths. The darkness. And I was born to them. And when I walked through the museum yesterday, and I saw the darkness, the numbers of destruction, and I heard the voices of those who share their stories from prison, from losing members of their family, their communities, and I saw the light in these eyes. And I’m not trying to be biased, everyone had light, but the women who had light in their eyes struck me so clearly. They were so strong. Their lightness just came shining out. Their smiles, their transparency. And it made me say to them, you are very, very special. And part of what we need, and part of what we need in this world today, is more light. And you have to be aware, and you probably already are, that every time you send light going out from you, it changes the darkness.
And sometimes we’re in certain situations where we’re afraid to even shed light because it also shows our faces and we don’t want to show them at that moment. But you know what? You’re going to shed this light out to such an extent that they’re going to have no darkness to hide behind. You’re going to be the light that lights up the world. And as my husband and I, I know we have discussed many times in the past, the stories about how when you’re thirsty and you drink water, it disappears after you drink enough, but if you light a candle to get away from the darkness, your light can be shared over and over and over again. So be brave and keep lighting up. Thank you.
