Let me introduce you to a brave hero from my country, Iran.
She was 16 years old. Just a girl. And on the streets of Iran, she did something braver than most people do in a lifetime: she took off her hijab and burned it in public. Right in front of the regime. Right in front of the world.
That was her crime: civil disobedience. A teenage girl refusing to obey men who claimed authority over her hair, her body, her life.
Her message spoke for millions of Iranian women:
To every man who rules over women in the name of religion, honor, or culture: We do not obey you. Your laws were never made for us.
This is what real power looks like: unarmed, unafraid, unbowed.
For that defiance, she was arrested. Her family says she was tortured and killed after falling into the hands of security forces. The Iranian authorities denied responsibility and gave a different account of her death.
Her name was Nika Shakarami. She was 16.
Now ask yourself: How many women in the West know her name? How many know what she risked for a freedom they have never had to fight for?
Say her name: Nika Shakarami.