[K-Women Talk] The Legacy of Persia and Iran's Tomorrow

"Cyrus Cylinder," the First Declaration of Human Rights
Religious Freedom Granted to Jewish Prisoners

No war can be called a just war. The true horror of the current Iran war, which is shaking the world as of March 16, 2026, does not lie in skyrocketing oil prices or displays of missile power. It lies in the pain and despair of ordinary Iranian citizens who lose their children in bombings and endure each day in fear of bombs that could fall again at any moment amid fire and smoke. What is even more frightening is the possibility that even the fragile buds of change that had begun to emerge within Iran may now freeze. Where is Iran's future headed?

The sudden news of war brings to mind the face of a young Iranian woman I met just a few weeks ago at the closing ceremony of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics. She was Soraya Hajiagha, a former badminton player and the first female IOC member from Iran. When asked by those around her how the tensions between Iran and the United States might unfold, she answered cautiously, "I will return to Tehran tomorrow. I will continue to serve as a bridge to the international community. We, the people of Iran, want change. And we hope that change comes peacefully." Her election to the IOC was not just a sports headline. It was a small signal of change within Iranian society—a development that the international community had quietly encouraged for years.

At first glance, the participation of a female athlete in global sports governance from a country long closed under Shia Islamic rule might seem merely a story about sports. However, such a step would have required the approval of the Iranian government, signaling that society's doors were beginning to open, even if only slightly. This is why the news of war is all the more heartbreaking. War has the power to drastically shrink the space for internal change. As external threats grow, society closes in on itself, and the language of reform is pushed behind the language of security and national survival. Anti-government protests disappear, and resistance to hardliners is soon defined as treason.

The signs are already appearing. Since the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei, what has emerged is not a loosening of the system, but rather the succession of his son, known to be even more of a hardliner than his father. Such a succession, which would have been hard to imagine without war, gains legitimacy in the midst of conflict. In this way, the winds of internal reform can vanish without a trace. As history has shown time and again, war is the most powerful mechanism for halting the clock of reform.

Iran’s 90 million people are highly educated and connected to the world through the internet. They imagine the possibility of a better life. The young female IOC member I met at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics was a symbol of that possibility. In the grand currents of international politics, her presence may seem small and weak. But when seeds sprout in many places, a forest will eventually grow. Change always begins from within. What the outside world can do is not to replace that change, but to leave at least a minimal space so that the possibility of change does not disappear.

Iran cannot be explained simply by its current political system. It is the descendant of Persia, which left deep roots in world civilization. Among the greatest legacies that Persia gave to humanity is the Cyrus Cylinder from the 6th century BC. King Cyrus the Great not only granted freedom to Babylonian Jewish captives but even covered their expenses to return home. He left behind a philosophy of rule that permitted religious freedom for all peoples and embraced diverse cultures. This document, often called the ‘world’s first declaration of human rights,’ established an order of tolerance and coexistence as the principle of the empire.

‘An order of tolerance and coexistence’—this is the Persian legacy that Iran and the world must inherit together. One can only hope that the end of this war does not become a tragedy that crushes even the flow of change toward that legacy.

Park Eunha, former Ambassador to the United Kingdom