I flew to Paris to sit in a room full of women who scare a regime.

What do we do next?I sat in a room in Paris with 37 women, former prime ministers, ministers, presidents, who each decided, some thirty years ago and some two, to stand publicly with the Iranian resistance even though it cost them at home. That’s the bar. So here’s the assignment, and it’s the one I set for myself on the flight back.* Stand tall even when it costs you something small. These women ruffled real feathers in France, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Ecuador, Colombia, and went home and said it louder. Meanwhile a lot of us won’t even post something on LinkedIn for fear of losing a client. So this week, say the uncomfortable true thing in the room where it’s least comfortable. You’re risking a like. They risked careers.* Get the third option straight so you can use it. The regime isn’t stopped by bombing it or by paying it off. The first funnels sympathy back to it, the second funnels money. The third option is supporting Iranians to topple it themselves and build a secular democratic republic. Learn that well enough to say it at dinner, and learn to spot the disinformation, including the doctored protest videos with overdubbed audio, designed to misrepresent what Iranians actually want.* Spread the right information, because that’s the part you can actually do. You don’t have to be a foreign-policy expert. I’m not. But you can refuse to repeat the bad narrative and you can share the real one. When Iran comes up, you now have the talking points. Use them.That’s the work. Here’s what I saw.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The conversationThis one’s different. No guest, just me, reporting back from a room I still can’t believe I was in.I went to Paris for the International Women’s Day conference, “Women’s Leadership: An Imperative for a Free Iran and Democratic Republic.” I didn’t fully know what I was walking into. I knew I needed it, I needed to fill my cup with women who have a voice and aren’t afraid to use it, and I’d learned enough about Iran over the last few months to feel like I had to be there. There was a side event, a big table, 37 women around it, and a nameplate with my name on it. Michelle Alliot-Marie of France. The Prime Minister of Slovakia. Former prime ministers, ambassadors, a former president. And me, who didn’t go to college and felt every inch of the impostor feeling, except I always say imposter syndrome is just the patriarchy, so I sat down anyway.Here’s what most people get wrong, and it’s the thing I most need you to hear. The Iranian resistance is led by a woman. Maryam Rajavi was democratically chosen by the movement’s many factions, each of which gets a vote. We’ve been sold a story where Iran’s women are only victims. The regime does brutally oppress women, that part is true. But the resistance is the opposite, it’s led by women, filled with women, and it’s working, which is exactly why the regime is terrified and why the former Shah’s son, who has spent his life in the US and not in Iran, is suddenly trying to claim the moment as the regime totters. They’re doctoring protest videos, overdubbing audio, inflating crowds, trying to turn footage of people protesting against him into footage for him. Sound familiar?But the moment that took me out wasn’t the pageantry. It was the 10-point plan, and what they said about it. The resistance has a plan: when the regime falls, a six-month interim government, then a free, secular, democratic election. And more than once, the message was this, even if the people don’t choose Maryam Rajavi, even if they reject the 10-point plan, the resistance will step down and build the future together anyway. Think about that. These are people who gave up everything to be here, celibacy, no marriage, no children, knowing that joining was effectively signing a death sentence. Zolal told me she joined at 19 and never thought she’d live this long. And after a lifetime of that, they would hand over power if the vote went against them, because what they want even more than winning is the vote itself. That willingness to lose is the most trustworthy thing I’ve ever seen in politics. You cannot fake that. It’s the integrity at the center of this whole movement.I sat directly behind Maryam Rajavi during the main presentation, and every time a woman came off the stage, she’d go to Rajavi first, and I got to watch her face light up, the way she took their hands, the warmth between women who’ve carried this for decades. Some of them, like Professor Donna Hughes, have been coming for thirty years. That solidarity is the thing I drove home with. There’s so much power and comfort in a room of women who decided, at real cost, to be on the right side of something.I left with a notebook full of quotes I haven’t stopped thinking about. Women are not property. Freedom is never given. Don’t beg for mercy, demand freedom. Female leadership is imperative for a democratic future. And the one that named the whole trip: being born a woman in Iran is an act of resistance, and honestly, being born a woman anywhere is.The quotes that shook me* “Being born a woman in Iran is an act of resistance.” — Shahin Bari* “Don’t beg for mercy, demand freedom.”* “Female leadership is imperative for a democratic future.” — Esther Rodriguez* “Women inspire and lead other women, and that’s when change is possible.”What I need you to take from thisThe first option is intervention, the US or Israel bombing Iran. They don’t want that. The second is appeasement, more money to the regime to maybe slow its nuclear program, which has never worked. The third option is the one the resistance is actually asking for: support them to topple the regime themselves, then get out of the way so they can build a secular, free, democratic society. The most useful thing you can do from here is spread accurate information, because there is so much bad information, and the disinformation is deliberate.Connect with the movementNational Council of Resistance of Iran: ncr-iran.orgBefore you goI’m releasing all five interviews I recorded in Paris over the coming days. If this dispatch moved you, send it to one person, and then go have the conversation you’ve been avoiding.Listening is the revolution. MollyListen next: The third option for Iran nobody’s talking about, with Zahra Amanpour, start here for the whole story. New here? This is my reporting from Paris. The interviews it leads into are all linked below.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Listen next: The third option for Iran nobody's talking about, with Zahra Amanpour The full series: The Iranian resistance has a plan. Do we? Get full access to What do we do next? at whatdowedonext.substack.com/subscribe