perl also has the -P option , which passes the program through the C preprocessor before exectution. So, using that option, you could use the exact same approach as you are in C++, using a #define.

#! /usr/bin/perl -P
use strict;

#define assert(exp) { if (!(exp)) { printf("assertion failed %s\n", #e
+xp); } }

my $var = 30;
assert($var == 32);
exit 0;
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Output:

assertion failed 30 == 32
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