As an Iranian who was born and raised in Iran under the Islamic regime, I find this label deeply unfair. My doubts about Islam began when I was a teenager, as I was not only a witness to the harsh treatment of women and girls under Islamic laws, but also a subject of it myself. Later, while studying sociology at university in Iran, those doubts deepened, and I eventually became an atheist. Labelling Iranians who are fed up with Islam and Muslims as “Islamophobic” is not only hurtful, but deeply simplistic and uneducated. It reduces a serious and complex issue to a shallow label and ignores the reality we have lived through. For 47 years, Iranians have suffered under Islamic rule. We have not only lost our basic human rights, but also our lives. Countless people have been imprisoned, executed, or killed. Our futures have been stolen, and our country has been pushed into war, poverty, and instability—all under Islamic Sharia. These are not distant or abstract issues; they are the lived reality of millions of Iranians. Our opposition does not come from irrational fear. A “phobia” suggests fear of something unknown. But for Iranians, the source of much of our suffering is not unknown—we have experienced it directly. We believe that Islam itself, as it has been implemented in Iran, is the root of these problems, and that is why we oppose it. We are not afraid—we are resisting. Calling us “Islamophobic” is therefore not only inaccurate, but also dismissive of what we have lived through. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Do you think that freedom of speech has gone too far, and that people are exploiting it for hate speech? ​Do you think it's possible that our societal obsession with this 'freedom' is actually robbing us of the liberty to think independently and logically? "Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness" Victor frankel