Whenever I hear the plaintive lyrics of “ Baraye ,” the song that became an anthem for the 2022 Iranian protests, I still tear up—and I find it hard to imagine anyone having a different reaction. Shervin Hajipour, then 25, wrote it by stringing together a list of young Iranians’ reasons for going to the streets. They want to kiss in public without fear and not be forced to spout empty slogans. They want an economic future and clean air. These are what the Czech dissident Václav Havel called the