I find the Iranian law of compulsory Headscarf to be in direct violation of my basic Human Rights including my right to freedom of expression, and right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion—Soumya Swaminathan, Indian Chess Champ

Prisoners, including women and teenagers, were loaded onto forklift trucks and hanged from cranes and beams in groups of five or six at half-hourly intervals all day long. Others were killed by firing squad. Those not executed were subjected to torture. The victims were intellectuals, students, left-wingers, members of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (MEK), other opposition parties..... Many had originally been sentenced for non-violent offences.....—The Economist - describing the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.—Nelson Mandela

As long as justice is postponed we always stand on the verge of these darker nights of social disruption ... The contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say that a riot is the language of the unheard. —Martin Luther King Jr.

I don’t think we can take away anything from this decision not to indict other than that ... it is now officially open season on black folks when it comes to police violence.—Vince Warren

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. —Elie Wiesel

"Please be assured that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will follow the case of Mr. Tabarzadi and will take appropriate steps to draw our concerns to the attention of the Iranian authorities."—

"Russia, Syria and Iran are profoundly dangerous regimes, but it is equally true that they are inherently weak. No government which jails its critics can claim to be powerful. Peace and freedom can triumph in the end, if only we would stand up for our principles."—David Keyes: Iran, Putin & Assad Outwitted US

Qatar commissioning the report and its release just before the Geneva talks - should not obscure the reality of the evidence produced.—BBC's Jim Muir on Syria Torture Report

Is it possible to carry the heavy burden of being a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to see the lumps in the throats of the students and witness their thin and malnourished faces and keep quiet? Is it possible to be in the year of no justice and fairness and fail to teach the H for Hope and E for Equality, even if such teachings land you in Evin prison or result in your death?—Farzad Kamangar. Iranian Kurdish Teacher. B 1978, Executed 2010 by Islamist regime.

Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one essence and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, Other members uneasy will remain. If you've no sympathy for human pain, The name of human you cannot retain! —Saadi Shirazi

There are two types of people in exile — those who are victims and end up committing suicide in the Seine and those who become warriors, who use all their sadness to build an engine with big wings to fly....Exile is my power.—Golshifteh Farahani

Some people are under the impression that they have the right to vote and to vote for whomever they want to.—Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi

To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.—Frederick Douglass

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). —Ayn Rand

"The Leadership is the choice of God and if the Leadership does not validate the vote of the people, even the people are nothing."—Hassan Mamdouhi, member of the Assembly of Experts / Kalemeh

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. —Audre Lorde

Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means...to a free society.—Frankfurter, Felix American jurist (1882–1965)

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.—Benjamin Franklin

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.—Henry David Thoreau