Why a lifelong civil rights leader has backed Iran's resistance for 30 years

What do we do next?Linda Chavez has spent fifty years holding positions that cost her, and she said the quiet part out loud: if it ever makes her a pariah, she’ll read great literature and play with her grandchildren, and that will be sufficient. I can’t stop thinking about that. So here’s the assignment, pulled straight from a woman who’s been doing this longer than I’ve been alive.* Pick principle over circumstance, even when it’s annoying. A mentor once told me I’m a principle-over-circumstance person, and it’s true, and it’s inconvenient as hell. Linda’s whole career is that. She didn’t change positions when the winds shifted in Washington, she ended up in the Reagan administration because they aligned with her, not the other way around, and she’s no longer a Republican now that they don’t. So next time you’re tempted to soften a real position for access or a client or a like, ask what you actually believe and stand there.* Open your arms now, or die in them. Linda quoted The Sopranos, of all things: you die in your own arms. Her point, you only die alone if you never opened those arms wide and took people in. A life that isn’t built around serving others ends lonely. So go be useful to someone. Build the life now that you’ll want around you later.* Talk to people you disagree with, on purpose. Linda would rather debate than give a speech, because debate forces you to actually learn the other side’s argument. We’ve lost that, siloed feeds, doom-scrolling, no common square. Her fix is a discipline: read and listen past your own agreement. Go find one smart person you disagree with and actually hear them out this week.That’s the work. Here’s the conversation that got me there.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The conversationThis one’s for anyone who’s been told to stay quiet, play it safe, don’t rock the boat, and felt something in them die a little when they complied.You need to know who Linda Chavez is, because her authority on this is real and it’s specific. She’s chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a civil rights organization in D.C., a former syndicated columnist, and former director of public liaison in the Reagan White House, fifty-plus years in American public life. But here’s the part that matters for Iran: her involvement goes back to the early 1990s, when she was the U.S. expert to the UN Human Rights Subcommission and sponsored resolutions condemning the Iranian regime’s misogyny and human rights abuses. She’s been in this fight for thirty years. This isn’t a take. It’s a life.And what struck me is that she comes at it from a different political tradition than a lot of the movement’s supporters, and it doesn’t matter, because the principles are the common ground. She backs the NCRI’s 10-point plan and says there’s not a single point she disagrees with: protection for minorities, separation of church and state, equal opportunity regardless of sex or ethnicity. She calls it universal. When friends and foes alike ask why she’s involved with “those people,” her answer is sharp: the regime arrests, tortures, and executes the MEK by the thousands, and a government is very good at knowing who its real enemies are. Don’t tell her they have no support.But the moment that got me wasn’t political at all. I asked about the sacrifices of being so vocal for so long, and she talked about consistency, about how you lose respect for yourself when you flip-flop for a seat at the right party. And then she quoted the mother from The Sopranos, you die in your own arms, and turned it into the most quietly devastating piece of advice: you only die alone if you never opened your arms wide. This is a woman genuinely at peace with the cost of her principles. You can’t fake that, and you can’t argue someone into it. You either live that way or you don’t. She does.We also get into why she distrusts the Shah’s son as a recycled alternative, the global retreat from democracy that worries her, and a grief I share, watching foundations you sacrificed for slip away and wondering what it was all for.Meet Linda ChavezLinda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a civil rights organization in Washington, D.C. She is a former syndicated columnist and served as director of public liaison in the Reagan White House. Her work on Iran dates to the early 1990s, when she served as the U.S. expert to the UN Human Rights Subcommission and, alongside her UK counterpart Clare Palley, sponsored numerous resolutions condemning the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses and treatment of women. She has been deeply involved with the Iranian resistance for more than three decades.Worth pulling out* “You only die in your own arms if you have not opened those arms wide and embraced other people all your life.” A Sopranos line, turned into a way to live.* On the regime’s brutality toward the MEK: a government is very good at one thing, knowing who its enemies are. The persecution is the proof of support.* Fifty years of not flip-flopping for access, and total peace with the cost: “I’ll read great literature, I’ll play with my grandchildren, and that will be sufficient.”Chapters00:00 Who Linda Chavez is 00:40 Three decades with the resistance, from the UN to today 02:00 Why the 10-point plan aligns with her values 04:00 Handling pushback, and why the regime’s hostility proves support 06:30 Fighting for freedom versus fighting for money 08:00 Personal sacrifice and the people behind the movement 10:30 Principle over circumstance, and 50 years of consistency 14:00 A message for women who feel lost 17:00 A message for the resistance: be prepared 20:00 The free market, universal rights, and the retreat from democracy 24:00 Siloed media, doom-scrolling, and the lost public square 30:00 Grief, changing foundations, and the hope aheadConnect with the movementNational Council of Resistance of Iran: ncr-iran.org Center for Equal Opportunity: ceousa.orgBefore you goIf you’ve been staying quiet to stay safe, send this to one person who needs the nudge. Then say the thing.Listening is the revolution. MollyThanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Listen next: My dispatch from Paris, inside the room with the women who lead this fight 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