Something unusual happened at the United Nations this week. In a room where Israel is usually on the defensive, the country chose to speak not about itself, but directly to the people of Iran. Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, switched from English to Farsi and addressed ordinary Iranians who are living under one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
The moment became even more pointed when he held up the photograph of 14-year-old Nikita Espandani. She was killed during protests in Iran last year. According to eyewitnesses and human rights activists, she was shot by regime forces. Officials then tried to hide what happened, releasing conflicting statements and placing pressure on her parents to claim she died from poisoning. Danon used her story to highlight the gap between Iran’s ancient cultural legacy and the brutality of the current leadership.
This was not a routine speech. It was a reminder that Israel sees the people of Iran as victims of their rulers, not as enemies. And it raised a deeper question that hangs over global human rights discourse: why is almost nobody else talking about this.
The silence is striking. Major women’s organizations that speak endlessly about gender-based violence rarely mention Iranian girls who are beaten, detained or killed for protesting. International human-rights groups that fill entire reports with accusations against democratic states often struggle to produce even a paragraph about the persecution of Iran’s minorities. Druze, Alawites, Christians, Baháʼís and others face discrimination and arrest, yet their stories receive minimal global attention.
The UN itself is part of the problem. It has repeatedly failed to confront Tehran’s executions, torture practices and suppression of dissent. Debates and resolutions targeting Israel appear regularly, even for far smaller incidents. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime’s actions create barely a ripple in the same committees that claim to defend human rights worldwide.
Danon’s speech stood out not because it was diplomatic, but because it was simply human. It acknowledged the courage of Iranian protesters, the suffering of families like the Espandanis and the long cultural heritage that the regime attempts to erase. It was also a reminder that while many governments and organizations choose silence, Israel is willing to speak about the injustices unfolding inside Iran.
That raises an uncomfortable but necessary point. If the global human rights community wants to maintain its credibility, it cannot be selective. The oppression of Iranians deserves the same visibility and urgency that activists demand elsewhere. Until that happens, moments like this one, when Israel uses its place at the UN to speak in Farsi to a population struggling for basic freedoms, will remain the exception rather than the rule.
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