April 4, 2026 Update by Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
For more than a month, Iran has been trapped in a devastating war, a war that the Iranian people neither started nor asked for. Yesterday, Donald Trump, in a threatening tone, said that he would send Iran “back to the Stone Age.”
But this must be said loudly and clearly: Iran is an ancient civilization, and it cannot be reduced to the Stone Age by threats or bombs. The Islamic Republic does not fear such a threat; it is the people of Iran who fear the destruction of their homes, cities, schools, hospitals, power plants, roads, internet access and daily bread.
Many opponents of the war are rightly calling on the United States and Israel to stop the attacks. I would add one clear sentence to this legitimate demand:
do not destroy civilian infrastructure or public assets.
So long as the military and political leaders of the regime, all of whom have played a role in the killing of the people, are being targeted, it may be seen as serving the interests of the people of Iran, and it can still be argued that the target is the machinery of repression and that such action is aimed at preventing further bloodshed. But infrastructure, including electricity, water, refineries, roads, airports, communications networks, and everything on which people’s daily lives depend, is not the property of the Islamic Republic. These are the assets of a nation. Destroying them means once again forcing the cost of war onto the very people who have already been its victims.
The Islamic Republic has been pushing Iran toward this abyss for years. Nearly half a century of poverty, repression, enemy-making, adventurism, and killing, and most recently the mass killing of innocent people in the streets, has shown that this regime will commit any crime for the sake of its own survival and the export of its revolution. And if Iran’s infrastructure is destroyed today, it is not the Islamic Republic that will pay the highest price. It is the Iranian child who sleeps in darkness. It is the Iranian patient who is left without electricity and medicine. It is the Iranian worker, teacher and retiree who will have to rebuild the ruins with empty pockets.
Iran does not belong to the Islamic Republic, to be set on fire whenever it chooses and handed over as “scorched earth.” Iran belongs to the people of Iran.
And Iran’s rich civilization will never be sent back to the Stone Age, neither by Trump’s threats nor by the obstinacy of the Islamic Republic. Do not help the Islamic Republic destroy Iran. If you truly stand with the people of Iran, then stop taking civilian lives and destroying the foundations of people’s daily existence. This nation has paid more than enough.
Shirin Ebadi
April 4, 2026