Another day, another nightmare.
How long will this nightmare be allowed to go on?
Sunday May 9th another dawn. Five tortured souls are asking the same questions that thousands before them have asked: How can God watch these atrocities and not be enraged? How can God remain indifferent to all these crimes and injustices done in His name?
Farzad Kamangar, a 34-year-old Kurdish teacher, along with a woman (Shirin Alamhooli) and three other men, (Farzad Ali Heydarian , Farhad Vakili,and Mehdi Eslamian), were charged as Mohareb, an enemy of God, for participating in terrorist activities against the Islamic regime. A charge conveniently issued by an unjust system to execute anyone opposing its cruel rule.
They were dragged toward the noose after being tortured day and night; for how long or why they probably can’t recall.
In his last letter from prison, Mr. Kamangar relates the famous Iranian story written in 1967 by the dissident teacher Samad Behrangi. “The Little Black Fish” is about a little fish who defies the rules of his community to embark on a journey to discover the sea. Through many adventures, courageously fighting the enemy, the little black fish finds freedom, but also an untimely death. Mr. Kamangar asks in his letter: Is it possible to be a teacher and not show the path to the sea to the little fish of the country?
Their executioners have the same smirk on their face that thousands before have seen. The noose is around their neck. A last look at the sky, a last breath and a last thought: Would the other fish follow their path until freedom is won?
In another cell, Yousof Rashidi, a student from Polytechnic University, is awaiting the same fate. His crime: raising a piece of paper with “A fascist President has no place in Polytechnic” written on it. This happened on the day that Ahmadinejad was paying a visit to that University.
Thousands of others around the country and in prison hear the stories of the fallen ones and wonder: When will the world hear their cries? When is the world going to stand up and help them in their cause?
Last week on this side of the ocean, after Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nation’s Non-Proliferation Conference, The Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (an ex-Revolutionary Guards member and a known terrorist for his participation in the assassination of opposition members while serving as ambassador in Ankara, Turkey), hosted a dinner party at his plush Manhattan residence for the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. Everyone came, with the exception of Nigeria and Gabon. Even the United States sent its deputy ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Wolff.
So, here sat the Security Council members participating in the feast prepared by those, who not only have the blood of thousands of Iranian men and woman on their hand, but also of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan—those who bravely serve the United States of America and who believe in the principles established by our founders: Freedom and Democracy—the very principles that our politicians seem to have long forgotten!
Keep up the good work. You know, through clever propaganda in my country, in Canada, the truth of what is happening is heard by very few and those of us who have heard it and who speak it, like I have, receive death threats, are assaulted, are attacked financially while our police do nothing to assist us. Instead, our police enforce for those that oppress my efforts to speak the truth of what is happening. It is happening all over the world, some places worse than others, of course. I have been spat upon and called “a dirty Jew” although I am a Christian and have been mocked for my faith, although I wouldn’t call myself a good Christian. It is because of the ideas I express. One man told me he worships Hitler “for killing people with ideas” like me. I have been unsuccessful to date to get on my feet adequately to contribute very much to promoting the truth, because I have been identified and attacked, thrown in jail — yes, in Canada! — and today even I am again under a false charge that I pose some sort of social threat. It is to keep me down and to isolate me. And I am blacklisted and every effort made to keep me in abject poverty, hungry and sometimes homeless. So, keep up the good work because by efforts like yours, people like me will be more free. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words. I am truly saddened by your ordeal and my prayers are with you. I hope one day soon, we would no longer need to express ourselves under threat and false accusations.