Mani Haghighi's Strong Reaction: The concept of civil disobedience means deliberately defying unjust laws, which is one of the core elements of the current government.

There is a contradiction and sophistry in the officials' demand for legal adherence.

It is true that people should follow the law, but this is under the condition that the lawmakers are responsive to the people and that the laws they enact reflect the people's demands.

You cannot instruct someone who protests a law to simultaneously respect that law. This is where the contradiction and sophistry lie.

Why do I call it sophistry?

We all know that the concept of civil disobedience—deliberate defiance of unjust laws—is one of the foundational elements of this current government.

I am referring to June 5, 1963, when Ayatollah Khomeini called on people to take to the streets in protest against the laws of the Pahlavi regime and to defy those laws.

Similarly, on February 10, 1979, when people were urged to ignore martial law regulations and come out to the streets at night, leading to the success of the revolution.

In our national calendar, you have declared these two days as official holidays.

For forty years, you have celebrated the concept of civil disobedience. Now, when these same people protest your laws and take to the streets, you insist on the law?

These people are not lawless.
These people are not agitators.
These people are not enemies.
They are our children.

They are the young women of the 1980s, courageously teaching us lessons in bravery and honor.

Instead of boasting about your false masculinity, you should listen to their protests, heed their demands, and support them like your own children.

Not allowing them to be beaten with batons and shot at, only to have their bodies handed over to their families for night-time burials.

Let us remember this great historical lesson: when people are repulsed by a law, either that law must be discarded or the lawmaker must change. There is no other way.

Because people cannot be erased.