April 24, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: I am a resident of the county and my ties to Lexington and Rockbridge County go back more then 20 years. I was born in Iran and have been in America more than 50 years. During all the years I have watched my home country endure many painful upheavals. Today is among the worse. I have family in Iran and write under a pseudonym to protect them.
The war in Iran is not a war against its people — it is a confrontation with the Islamic Republic and its Revolutionary Guard (recognized as a terrorist organization). And the current ceasefire does not extend to the Iranian people. The regime’s war against its own citizens continues unabated. For more than four decades, Iranians have endured a relentless struggle against repression, violence, and coercive control over their way of life.
A nation rich in history and culture has been driven backward by an ideologically driven oligarchy. The costs have been tremendous: loss of basic human and women’s rights, the erosion of family life, and incitement of regional conflicts across the Middle East, with the aim of “plowing out” Israel. Since the revolution, tens of thousands of Iranians and innocent people outside the country, most notably in Syria, have been killed, disappeared, or imprisoned.
In Iran, successive generations have risked their lives in pursuit of freedom and dignity only to face violent crackdowns. During the January 2026 uprising, thousands of people were gunned down within two days, and the people arrested are being executed on a daily basis. Shutdown of the internet has cut the country off from the world.
Today Iranians across the globe gather peacefully to amplify the voices silenced at home, asking the free world to uphold its principles and place human rights above economic interests so that a free, modern-thinking regime can emerge and shape a the better future for its people and the world. SINASHABGARD Rockbridge County
