Speech at the premiere of the movie 77 Hours on October 18, 2026
Distinguished listeners, dear Iranian community in Finland and friends of freedom, This film shows how Islamic ideology transforms an entire society. This is where it leads at its worst. The Islamic Republic has been and is a half-century-long nightmare that still continues. This film awakens the Finns and the entire Western world to reality. All the atrocities and what the regime did, especially on January 8th and 9th, cannot be squeezed into a few sentences. But what has been done is visible in this film. In Iranian civilization, the ruler and the law have represented justice and order—unlike the Islamist dictatorship. Persia was once a rich center of culture and civilization. The Arab conquest 1400 years ago and the 1979 Islamic revolution changed the direction of the entire society. The history of Iran teaches us that freedom and democracy must be defended before it is too late. Now the Iranians are taking back the freedom that was cruelly stolen from them 47 years ago. In this ver...