Ciso 🇦🇲 🇮🇷

Prince Reza Pahlavi on the four freedoms underpinning the future Iran: “But freedom is not only a chant. It must become an order: laws, institutions, a constitution. That is why, as the struggle grew, I proposed four principles on which every Iranian who wants a free country can stand together. I want to describe them today as what they truly are: four freedoms. The first is the freedom of Iran itself: Iran's territorial integrity. It is only in a single, secure, stable, unified nation-state that our freedoms can flourish. The second is the freedom of the individual: individual liberties and equality before the law. The same rights for women as for men. The same rights for every citizen, whatever their language, their origin, or their belief. Iran is one nation, rich in languages, cultures, and traditions, and Iran belongs to them equally. In a free Iran, no citizen will have to choose between who they are and the country they love. The third is the freedom of conscience: a secular democracy, with religion separated from the state. This is no hostility to any faith. It is its protection. Shia, Sunni, Baha'i, Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and those of no faith at all: in a free Iran, the state will belong to all of them, because it belongs exclusively to none of them. And the fourth, perhaps the most important, is the freedom to choose: the right of the Iranian people to decide freely, at the ballot box, the form of their future government. Please notice what is not on this list. No name, no party, no system of government is on it, because all of those choices belong to the people. I will not take them from the people, nor will I allow others to. These four freedoms are not a program for one political movement. They are the platform for democratic cooperation on which an entire nation can stand. And a free Iran will extend an open hand beyond its borders too. It will end the conflicts this regime has fueled across our region and make peace with all of its neighbors, including Israel. The Iranian people have never been the enemy of any nation.”

Prince Reza Pahlavi's Words to His Opponents: Iran is home to varying, often combative political families. Some have written that I should not be the one to hold this prize. I want to answer them directly and with respect. First, thank you. You were able to make your objection freely in German newspapers and on German streets without fear of arrest or a bullet. That is exactly the freedom I am fighting for in Iran. Second, this prize is yours too. The foundation did not give it to me or to any faction. It gave it to the Iranian people. And you are the Iranian people as much as anyone else in this hall. Third, my hand has always been open, and remains open, to monarchists and republicans, to the left and the right, to believers and secularists, to those who march for me and those who march against me. If we accept these four freedoms, these four principles, then we are on the same side. And there is a place for you in this struggle and in the Iran that comes after it. We do not have to agree about the past to agree about the future.