The Statement of Iranian Translators in Solidarity with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement

Iranian translators support the Iranian protests

Republished from the translators’ Telegram group, 21 November 2022

We translators always translate the stories after their completion. The story written in Iran right now has thousands of authors. As it is written, it is translated into one language: humanity! For this translation, one only needs to know the language’s grammar. Nowadays, each Iranian citizen is the translator of their and others’ words. Like all other Iranian citizens, we translators have used the name of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini and many other Iranian men and women who were brutally murdered during the protests to send our message to the world. We have shouted ‘Life, woman, freedom’, the key slogan of the Iranian movement, in every language we know.

We are standing with millions of Iranians, especially Iranian women who have been harshly oppressed by the regime. We denounce all discriminations and restrictions on freedom imposed by the regime, which have turned Iran into a prison. We stand against the economic corruption that has resulted in poverty and poor living conditions for most Iranians. We condemn all barbaric laws, which have been put in place to cause fear and give the regime the power to control both public and private lives of Iranians. We denounce all the lies told by the regime to the citizens of Iran.

What is the most effective way to fight tyranny, poverty, corruption, prejudice and environmental destruction other than standing in solidarity with the enlightened youth of Iran who risk their lives by fighting in the most civilized way for their basic human rights? We will never leave them alone!

In the past decades, we have always strived to deliver world literature to our fellow Iranians. We have faced the same barriers, which lie before the peaceful movement of the Iranian youth today: restrictions, censorship, and repression. The regime has always built walls between Iranians and the rest of the world. However, they have never succeeded in silencing the voices of Iranians and shutting down their cry for freedom because Iranians have always been the writers of their own lives. Today they shout louder than ever: Woman, life, freedom.

We translators, we citizens of Iran, will never return to the past. We will only fight harder to crack the censorship wall. From now on, we will publish the uncensored versions of all our translated books. What we do might be a drop in the ocean in comparison to the big tides of the Iranian youth movement; however, “no matter how small the step, forward is forward”.

Together with millions of Iranians, we demand immediate and unconditional freedom for all political prisoners in Iran, including teenagers and young members of the movement, students, writers, workers, film directors, lawyers, athletes, doctors, and teachers. If the regime does not grant us our rights, we will fight for them at any cost. We will win our right to freedom of thought, freedom of speech, peaceful protests, and a democratic government in Iran.

The Signatories:

Sanai Ardakani, Hossam Emami, Samiranik Norouzi, Ali Nasrallahi, Nazanin Arab, Keyvan Sarrashte, Behrouj Akreyi, Fariduddin Soleimani, Aida Zang Zarin, Parsa Zanganeh, Arezoo Heydari, Azar Mahmoudi, Farzad Azimbek, Sadeq Nikpour, Mohsen Rabiei, Leila Selgi, Parvaneh . Qassimian, Alireza Durandish, Golnoosh Shakuri, Sina Royai, Sepehr Yahiavi, Ange Haqqani, Mohammad Hayati, Mehrdad Khamenei, Shirin Mirzanjad, Matin Karimi, Salala Haghi Navand, Shayan Javadi, Parisa Rezaei, Pooya Rafoui, Rahman Afshari, Ziba Arab Hanai, Jalal Pikani, Toraj Yarahmadi, Maryam Golpaigani, Behzad Ziksari, Iftikhar Naboynejad, Mehrdad Ramzannia, Mozhgan Dastfal, Amirreza Ghalabi, Nima M. Ashrafi, Masoud Kolbeban, Farzaneh Kwanati, Moeen Farrokhi, Samaneh Norouzi

and others

Photo: The cover of the Iranian translators’ declaration (source: telegra.ph)

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