Masih Alinejad ripped into the United Nations at the Geneva Summit, accusing it of appeasing Iran’s rulers while thousands die, and called for Western leaders to move from statements to concrete action to help end the violence.
At the Geneva Summit, Iranian activist Masih Alinejad delivered a blunt, emotional assault on the UN and Western elites for what she called moral cowardice in the face of mass killings in Iran. She said the international community has tilted toward accommodation instead of confronting the regime responsible for brutal reprisals. Her remarks stunned the room and forced a reckoning over who the global institutions actually defend.
“I am supposed to talk only in three minutes,” Alinejad said. “But in my country, in 24 hours, they killed 40,000 people in Iran. And I am here at the United Nations while the killers are walking here. I saw them with expensive Gucci bags. I saw them with expensive brands walking here at the United Nations.” “I am going to talk the truth,” she declared, and then turned her fire directly at the organization’s leadership. “The Secretary General of United Nations stands with dictators,” she said. “And I will ask you whether they stand with dictators or with the victims. As Hala mentioned, the United Nations stand with the victims.”
The Secretary General of United Nations sends a congratulation letter to Islamic Republic for the anniversary of this murderous regime. You tell me, do they stand with dictators or the victims? The victims are here, these two women.
One of them lost her eye because the Revolutionary Guard shot her in her eye. One of them carried a bullet in her arm. Do they stand with them?
Her charges went beyond rhetoric to specifics, accusing officials of cozying up to a regime that has slaughtered its own people. She described seeing Iranian representatives in Geneva living in Western comfort while families back home bury loved ones. That contrast was the core of her indictment against international handlers who prefer optics to pressure.
Right now, after killing 40,000 people, they storm into hospitals; they’re finishing off the injured ones; they’re arresting doctors and nurses; they put the political prisoners on death row; they’re executing them. I want to ask Geneva to host a peace conference, invite the opposition from Iran, invite the leaders of Europe, invite the leaders from European countries and free world here to talk about an Iran without an Islamic Republic.
Alinejad accused the West of cultural timidity that hindered early support for dissenters. She recounted how, when she campaigned against compulsory hijab, Western officials fretted about being labeled Islamophobic rather than defending basic rights. That hesitation, she argued, let the regime survive and the slaughter accelerate.
“The West waited too long,” she said, tearing up a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini. “When I was fighting against compulsory hijab, they were like, ‘Oh, this is Islamophobic. Oh no, we have to respect others’ culture.’ All the female politicians from West, they went to my country, they borrowed compulsory hijab from Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France, from everywhere, high representative of Europe…Suddenly, they realized, ‘Oh, this is not their culture.’ They started to cut their hair to show their solidarity with us.”
Her message to symbolic gestures was sharp and simple: actions matter more than haircuts and hashtags. “Stop cutting your hair,” she said. “Cut your ties with our killers.” That bluntness reflects a conservative frustration with empty proclamations and an insistence that Western governments use leverage instead of performative sympathy.
Alinejad also questioned why Western institutions refuse to take pride in their own values when those principles offer a real contrast to repression. She warned that moral ambiguity hands dictators breathing room while populations pay the price. For Republicans watching, her speech reinforced calls for firmer, values-based policy that does not cede moral leadership.
I’m going to leave Geneva forever. You can kick me out forever. But I couldn’t keep silent because I feel the guilt on my shoulder. I don’t know how to save my people with empty hands. I cannot sometimes sleep; I cannot breathe; I cannot even eat because I feel guilty. I cannot believe how come the leaders of European countries do not feel guilty by shaking the hand of those Islamic Republic officials full of blood. Shame on you.
She finished with a plea for solidarity across global dissident movements and a call to oust regime operatives from Western capitals. “I need you to promise me that we’re going to stand together, all of us, with my brother in Venezuela, my sister from Belarus. I need you all to stand with us and help my people in Iran. We have to stop the massacre and kick these f***ing killers from Europe, from everywhere,” she concluded.
The speech landed shortly after other calls for Western unity and strength on the global stage, underscoring a growing conservative argument that Europe and the U.S. must stop tolerating regimes that brutalize their citizens. Whether leaders adopt tougher measures or continue with statements remains the pressing question Alinejad forced onto the summit floor.
