Fragile Freedoms and Power in Motion
A dispatch from "Democracy on the Brink"
The following is a speech delivered by Nica Gojan at the “Democracy on the Brink” conference held at Tufts University in Medford Massachusetts, which our Rabbit SaraMarie attended. Ms. Gojan set the stage for a day of panel discussions and keynote speakers informed by firsthand experiences of authoritarianism and resistance around the world.
Distinguished guests, esteemed speakers, and fellow advocates,
My name is Nica Gojan, and I stand before you today not just as a Tufts student from the Republic of Moldova, but as someone who believes that conversations like these are more than necessary—they are urgent. When we began organizing this symposium, we knew we had an opportunity—one that came with responsibility. To not simply discuss democracy in abstract terms, but to confront what is happening in the world around us. To take full advantage of the space, freedom and access we hold—to ask the hardest questions and challenge the very systems that shape our world.
Because if we don’t, who will?
We are here today because we can be. Because we have the education, the resources, and the privilege to engage in this conversation openly. But that is not a privilege shared by everyone. Across the world, elections are being manipulated, and entire populations are being stripped of their rights—not suddenly, not dramatically, but systematically, with precision.
And if this conference feels like everything is happening all at once—good. That’s exactly what we set out to communicate. Because these struggles are not isolated.
Power moves across borders and what happens to one of us will, eventually, shape all of us.
And the speakers you will hear today—many of whom have risked everything to defend truth, freedom, and human dignity—are proof of that. They are activists, journalists, dissidents—people who have stood up against repression and refused to be silenced. Their stories are not just reminders of what is at stake, but testaments to the power of resistance.
It is no coincidence that we are hosting this event alongside the Human Rights Foundation’s College Freedom Forum, an organization committed to amplifying the voices of those who fight for human rights worldwide. In fact, when we first began planning this symposium, they were our first outreach—because we knew that if we were going to have this conversation, we had to center those who have lived it.
For me, the reality of how fragile these freedoms are became impossible to ignore three years ago.
When the first attacks were launched across the border in Ukraine, they were just news—something distant enough to watch but not quite feel. Then, within days, my friends and relatives started fleeing Moldova. Not because they were worried, but because they were certain. Certain that Moldova was next. Certain that we had a week, maybe less.
I started checking the news obsessively and convinced myself that if I understood the logic of war, I could predict what would happen next. But it wasn’t just the war I was trying to understand. It was the question hanging over everything: Would Moldova be next?
And yet, in my own home, the reaction was different. My parents, like so many who had lived through Soviet times, were unphased. When I asked, What do we do if this actually happens? They said It wouldn’t be that bad.
That was when it hit me—not just the fear of invasion, but the realization that democracy, for some, isn’t something to fight for. It’s something to bargain with.
That realization has never left me.
Because authoritarianism isn’t always met with shock—it’s often met with silence. Not because people don’t care, but because they’ve been conditioned to believe that resistance is futile. And that is how rights disappear. Not with a dramatic act, but with a slow erosion—one restriction, one rewritten law, one silenced voice at a time.
But history has proven something else, too: silence is not the only response.
Look at Serbia—where, despite fraudulent elections and violent crackdowns, people have mobilized massively, refusing to let corruption go unchallenged.
Look at Ukraine—where power does not lie in institutions or policies, but in the people. A country that was expected to fall in days is still standing after years, because people made it so.
Neither of these struggles are identical. But they all tell us one thing: oppression thrives when people believe they are powerless. And liberation begins the moment they decide they are not.
This is not just about democracy—it’s about movements. It’s about the people, past and present, who have put their bodies, their voices, and their futures on the line because they refuse to accept injustice as inevitable.
And history has shown us time and again: some of the most powerful movements have been led by women.
Feminism, at its core, is about challenging power because no society is whole when half its population is denied full participation.
From the streets of Tehran to the leadership of Serbia’s protests, to the feminist movements resisting in Russia, Poland, and Latin America—women are not just participants in the fight for justice. They are the architects of it.
So when we talk about resistance, let us also talk about who has been leading it. And who we still fail to listen to.
By now, no one here needs a reminder that the world is in crisis. We’ve heard the stories. We’ve seen the patterns. The warning signs aren’t subtle.
The problem isn’t that we don’t know what’s happening. It’s that knowing isn’t the same as acting.
Oppression doesn’t disappear overnight. It is dismantled—choice by choice, action by action—until what was once unthinkable becomes inevitable.
The difference between freedom and repression is not some grand, dramatic moment. It’s a series of small decisions, made by ordinary people, over time.
We don’t need grand speeches about what should be done. We need people who refuse to stop doing. Who show up, who speak up, who disrupt, who demand better.
Because history isn’t written by those who believe it’s too late. It’s written by those who resist.
And today, in this room, we are surrounded by those very people.
Thank you
A huge thank you to Nica Gojan for sharing her direct experience and wise words with us. More conference dispatches coming soon.