The National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) is honored to present its 2024 Humanitarian Award to Fatemeh Sepehri.

For 45 years, Iranian women have been fighting to reclaim the rights, freedom, and progress stolen from them by brute force. One woman in particular has stood in defiance of all the Islamic Republic stands for: Fatemeh Sepehri. Her life is a testament both to the regime’s cruelty and to the resilience of Iranian women.

Having lost her husband in her country’s defense in Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran, she chose not to be a victim, but instead to be a voice for her people and her country. In the 2017 pro-democracy protests that started today’s ongoing revolution, Fatemeh Sepehri emerged as a key figure. In 2019 she signed a now famous, public statement of fourteen female dissidents that challenged the very foundations of Khamenei’s tyranny, demanding his resignation and the complete dissolution of the Islamic Republic. The regime, fearing her growing influence, threw her and her co-signatories in prison. In the aftermath of the Mahsa Amini protests, agents raided her home and jailed her again. The IRGC kept her in solitary confinement. Despite struggling with significant health challenges, she refused to back down even in jail and continues to stand firm in her beliefs and demands for justice.

Her name has become a symbol of resistance, echoing across Iran and beyond.

The 2024 Humanitarian Award was accepted by Fatemeh Sepehri’s brother, Dr. Ali Asghar Sepehri, at the NUFDI Norooz Gala on March 16, 2024. Read the following excerpt from Dr. Sepehri’s acceptance speech:

“The horizon of our victory is within sight, and the return of freedom and hope for the future, the revival of a free and glorious Iran, like that which existed prior to the 1979 revolution, is possible. Let me remind you once again that my sister considers the current tyrannical regime not only a threat to Iran but to all humanity.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBMNmnbd8H4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNO8n_KeCjM