On Saturday 13 july 2019, a large crowd gathered in Ashraf 3, Albania, home to Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), to hold the annual Free Iran rally of the Iranian resistance. The event was the fourth installment in a series of events held at Ashraf 3. Hadassah Lieberman gave a speech in this gathering.
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—I know it’s late, I know everyone gets tired and hungry. I wanted to quickly take you on a little discussion about colors which represent darkness, the black, and lightness. And when I think about darkness, I think about—can you not hear me? Oh, okay, I’ll do that. Sorry. I’m always getting directions.
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 slave labor camp. And they made it, and I was born. So I represent someone who all my life I knew, I read, I heard about all this 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.
Hadassah Lieberman ended her speech saying: 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 know 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.
