I hear you — and I share the anger at Israel’s decades of crimes in Gaza and Palestine. That truth can’t be denied. And yes, foreign intervention in the Middle East has left scars everywhere. Nobody in Iran wants to live under the boots of the US or Israel. But I also need to say this: the idea that the Iranian regime is a “shield” protecting Persia is a dangerous illusion. A shield defends life — this regime takes it. It executes children, jails women, silences poets, and drains the soul of our society. That’s not protection — that’s suffocation. Iran is not surviving because of the regime. Iran is surviving in spite of it. Our poetry, our art, our joy, our culture — these are older and stronger than any theocracy or occupation. That is the true shield of Persia: the people and their spirit, not the men with guns and prisons. As for the fear of Tehran flying a rainbow flag — let’s be honest: Iranians are not fighting and dying for foreign symbols. They are fighting for the right to live, love, dance, think, and speak without fear. Our future doesn’t have to be a copy of the West or a prison of the East. It can be our own. The regime wants the world to believe it’s the “only alternative to foreign domination.” That’s the lie it survives on. But we Iranians know: freedom doesn’t mean trading one master for another. It means finally being free to define our own destiny.