The recorded history of the ancient land of Iran is divided into two eras: before and after Islam. From the time the Median dynasties, on the western edge of the Iranian plateau along the Zagros range, founded the Median Empire in 700 BCE, until the fall of the Sassanid Empire — a span of nearly fourteen centuries — the Iranians ruled, with pride, splendor, and majesty, over the greater part of half the known world of their time.
Wherever the banner of the Iranian Empire flew, cultures flourished, and peoples were free to worship their own gods and follow their own faiths. The great sovereigns of Iran, themselves children of a deep and glorious civilization, built their rule upon that lofty culture. Iranian governance — the Iranian Empire — founded on wisdom, justice, generosity, prosperity, and the pursuit of a flourishing life, stood as a complete and successful model of governance, not only across the Iranian realm but in the farthest reaches of the world of that era.
After the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the Arab invasion of Iran, the Iranian Empire gave way, for roughly two centuries, to Islamic caliphal rule. The invading converts made great efforts to change the Iranian language, culture, and customs, and to impose their own backward traditions upon Iranians — but the culture of the desert could not withstand the grandeur of Iranian civilization. Iranians therefore preserved their language and a great part of their culture and festivals, Nowruz above all, and strove to revive the culture and philosophy of Iranian governance. After two centuries, a movement to reclaim Iran from the Arabs took shape in Greater Khorasan under Iranian royal dynasties, and the Arabs were gradually driven out of Iran. In the end, although Iran became Islamicized, it was never Arabized. Yet the faith of the invaders remained in Iran, and for more than fourteen centuries it has imposed great hardship and disorder on our nation and country, and has been exploited by Iran's enemies to disrupt the structure of Iranian governance — to the point that in Bahman 1357 (February 1979), through malevolent decrees and through conspiracy and deceit, they seized control of Iran and installed a government of their own choosing, one bearing no resemblance whatsoever to Iranian identity. From the very beginning of that wicked regime's rule, Iranians have fought against it by every means available to them, and this struggle will continue until the downfall of this foreign-installed government.
At Iran Paad, a cultural and political organization, we see ourselves, on one hand, as soldiers on the cultural front, working to sweep away superstition, the worship of the outdated, prayer in a foreign tongue, and the veneration of Iran's enemies — striving, through this struggle against the forces of darkness, to lay the intellectual groundwork for Iran's freedom. On the other hand, we see ourselves as guardians of the philosophy of Iranian imperial governance, and we work toward the restoration of monarchical rule and the return of sovereignty.
Long live Iran.
Long may the tricolor flag bearing the Lion and Sun fly.
Long live the Iranian Empire.