#IRAN: MOTHERS OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE—FEAT. #USHIKERS MOM @TRENORA
REPUBLISHED FROM WOMEN NEWS NETWORK:
Nora Shourd and Iran Mothers of Prisoners of Conscience
by Elahe Amani with Lys Anzia – Women News Network – WNN
AUGUST 10, 2010…2:34 PM
Iran protest movement poster. Image: via Payvand
“We are no different than one another.”
TEHRAN: Outside the prison walls of ward 350, in the IRI – Islamic Republic of Iran’s Evin Prison, a group of brave demonstrators hold placards and pictures of their loved ones who are part of a hunger strike. The demonstrators are mostly women – Iranian mothers, family and friends who have chosen to publicaly defend the rights and dignity of those incarcerated. As the days of the hunger strike continue, some of the prisoners have chosen to go without water. This is a dangerous proposition, but the stakes are critical. The treatment of prisoners in the IRI desperately needs greater humanity and reform.
The strongest human advocates many prisoners of conscience in the IRI have is the silent presence of the women who sit outside the solid doors of the prison for hours on their daily vigil. Many are mothers. Others are wives or sisters. Some are fathers, uncles, cousins and supportive friends. But one common goal is shared among them all. To gain the release of their loved ones.
“We requested a visit with the prosecutor some time ago, but have received no response,” said, Shahrzad Kariman, in an interview with Change for Equality, about prison conditions for her daughter, legal rights defender Shiva Nazar Ahari. “We have also requested an in person visit with our daughter in prison, on three occasions, but those requests have had no response either,” continued Shiva’s mother. “Currently we are able to visit with Shiva once a week but from behind a glass cabinet. It has been a long time since we had an in person visit with Shiva. I don’t know why the prosecutor does not allow us to have an in person visit with our loved one.”
Mothers of activists who have been arbitrarily arrested, detained or have suffered enforced disappearance are often left with immense grief and an unending sense of loss and desperation. Daring to speak out against government officials and leaders in their regions, they often suffer themselves from legal backlash and arbitrary arrests as threats to their imprisoned adult children and/or their families increase.
“Every minute I grieve for my daughter. I yearn to have her with me,” said Nora Shourd, mother of imprisoned U.S. hiker Sarah Shourd, in a recent one-on-one interview with U.S. based Iranian peace activist and journalist, Elahe Amani, for Women News Network (WNN).
During the interview Elahe and Nora talked about both their daughters who share the same age. Both are thirty-one years old. One is of Iranian descent, the other American. Both are graduates of the University of California Berkeley. Both are defenders of human rights.
Mothers of the U.S. Hikers
The July 31, 2009 arrest by IRI – Islamic Republic of Iran authorities (now over one year ago) of U.S. hikers Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer brought three mothers together – Nora Shourd, Laura Fattal and Cindy Hickey. After a year of full-time work campaigning for the release of their adult children, the mothers are feeling more frustrated than ever. Months of efforts have not changed the fact that their children have not come home. Answers to lift them from their imprisonment seem elusive.
Nora Shourd and three year old daughter, Sarah
After seven months of waiting, on May 10, 2010, the U.S. hiker mothers were finally given permission to see their children for first time since their imprisonment. Before this, the only communications with their adult children that was allowed by IRI officials was only one five minute phone call.
“We are no different than one another,” said Nora in her interview with Elahe Amani of WNN as she shared her deep convictions. It is the same worry that all mothers of prisoners in the IRI share. Nora’s daughter, Sarah, has been in solitary confinement now for over one year. Nora worries about the health effects of solitary incarceration on her daughter.
The IRI must, “abolish the use of prolonged solitary confinement,” said Human Rights Watch in a detailed 2008 report called, “You Can Detain Anyone for Anything.” The inhumane practice of solitary confinement, “gravely subjects detainees to lasting psychological damage,” emphasized the report.
The answers to the problems are not simple. The solutions are not easy. Nora, along with the other U.S. hiker mothers – Laura Fattal and Cindy Hickey, worry pensively as current relations and tensions between the U.S. government and the IRI leadership volley back and forth. They fear their children may only be political pawns in a daily shifting international situation.
“As a young woman, Sarah began her activist career by going to Chiapas, Mexico to do peace work,” shared Nora about her daughter in her interview with Women News Network. “She worked through the Chiapas Support Committee to support much needed projects, such as water rights and improvement of the health care clinic. Sarah was also part of a woman’s collective that brought several of the mothers of murdered young women of Juarez, Mexico to California (U.S) to speak about their daughters (and) “Femicides.” Sarah went to New Orleans to also help after the Katrina hurricane disaster. She wrote extensively about human rights and women in Ethiopia, Yemen and Syria,” Nora added.
Faced with unofficial charges of espionage, Sarah, Josh and Shane have now reached a critical stage in their incarceration. They have been incarcerated for more than the one year. In December 2009, Manouchehr Mottaki, IRI Foreign Minister said, “They have entered Iran with suspicious aims. They will be tried by Iran’s judiciary and verdicts will be issued.” But to date no official court hearing or date has been legally filed in the court.
“When I saw Sarah (last May, 2010) I could see she was changed,” Nora told Elahe in her interview. “She is calm despite all the external pressure, but very very sad, lonely and depressed. Sarah, Josh and Shane have written us many letters, but we never get them, any of them. The last we heard they had their pens and papers taken away from them as a punishment.”
In a solitary cell Sarah composes songs and memorizes them on the endless days. When she saw her mother for the first time in months, in May 2010, she sang to her mother two of her original songs. “It was so moving to hear her beautiful, proud voice singing!” said Nora to Elahe.
The IRI mandate on prison terms and conditions states that solitary confinement comes under special IRI legal provisions. Although Sarah Shourd has been in solitary now for more than one year, the IRI State Prisons, Security and Corrective Measures Organization states that, “The laws governing the Prison Authority allow for disciplinary punishment of a maximum of 20 days (only) in solitary confinement.” Sarah is also suffering from a health condition that is not currently being treated while she is in prison.
“International penal standards dictate that solitary confinement should be imposed only for short periods, in an individualized fashion, under strict supervision (including by a physician) and only for legitimate penal reasons of discipline or preventive security,” said a 2008 Human Rights Watch report. “Prolonged solitary confinement of the detained or imprisoned person may amount to acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” said The UN OHCHR – UN Office Of The High Commissioner For Human Rights in 1992.
Burma’s Famous Mother
“Now I am numb,” said Burmese author and rights advocate, Sayamagyi Kyi Oo, after her son had been arrested four times for public acts in protest, statements and making critical social-satire jokes about Myanmar’s leading generals during his famed comedy performances. “What my son did was for the sake of the country. I don’t mind how many cases they charged my son with,” said Kyi Oo.
Author, activist, mother Sayamagyi Kyi Oo
“I feel the same way as other mothers whose sons also face the same fate,” added Kyi Oo as she shared her experience of being a mother of a political prisoner – a prisoner of conscience. All mothers of prisoners of conscience worldwide experience the same fate, the same frustrations, the same depressions.
Kyi Oo’s son, Maung Thura, rose to acclaim as the talented Burmese comedian and filmmaker who is known in public by the name Zarganar. In December 2008, after going in and out of detention for his outspoken activism, Zarganar was sentenced to thirty-five additional years of incarceration at the Myitkyina Prison. Today Zarganar’s is suffering from very poor health.
Struggling with her own serious condition with advanced gall bladder cancer, on March 20, 2009, Zarganar’s admired 83 year old mother, Kyi Oo, died. Before her death, even after concerted efforts, she was unable to get permission from Myanmar prison officials to see her son again for, “the last time.”
As witnesses to traumatic events in the political arrests of their children, many mothers of prisoners of conscience experience critical states of worry, prolonged lack of sleep, suicidal tendencies and anxiety – all symptoms of PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. These conditions constantly haunt them and severely affect their health and well being.
Is It Possible Not to Be Worried?
“Is it possible not to be worried?,” said Shahrzad Kariman, the mother of Iranian imprisoned human rights activist advocate Ms. Shiva Nazar Ahari, in a recent interview with International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Shiva Ahari's mother, Shahrzad Kariman, proudly holds up a photo of her daughter. Image: Roozonline.com
On the night of her daughter’s arrest Ahari’s mother describes the emotional torture of a mother who was also dealing with family health issues when she was told of the arrest of her child. “Her father and I were in very bad shape that night,” says Kariman describing the arrest of her daughter. “Her father had open heart surgery and was ordered to remain in a stable mental state. I was undergoing chemotherapy. They took our child from the day of her arrest on 14 June, 2009,” she continued.
“We were unable to have any news on her for 25 days,” added Shahrzad Kariman. “We went everywhere we could think of, the Revolutionary Courts and the Prosecutor’s Office. Many people had been detained and wherever I went there was a flood of people, just like myself, who didn’t know where their children were.”
“I went to Evin prison every week,” continued Shiva’s mother. “But each time they told me that Shiva was not allowed to have any visitors. She called me (from Evin Prison) 25 days after her arrest saying: ‘I’m well, Mom. Don’t worry about me. I am in solitary confinement in Ward 209.’”
On June 12, 2010, Shiva celebrated her birthday behind bars. “She is celebrating her 26th birthday in Evin Prison today – a name synonymous with the system of injustice that prevails in Iran. Colleagues and I will be remembering Shiva on her special day with a cake and birthday wishes,” said Ann Harrison, East Gulf researcher for Amnesty International. Shiva’s mother is still waiting for her release.
The Mothers of Tiananmen
After over 20 years of surveillance, phone tapping and filtered mail, 73 year old, retired university professor, Ms. Ding Zilin has not backed down in her attempts to find the truth in the events that lead to her son’s death. The Chinese mother of the 1989 slain high school student, Jiang Jielian, who was the first to die at the Beijing Tiananmen Square protests massacre, still hopes to find peace.
Mothers of Tiananmen grieve at 2009 commemoration service. Ding Zilin can be seen on far right. Image: The Mothers of Tiananmen
In the 1990s, after facing the grief and ongoing trauma from the loss of her son, Ding Zilin got together with one other mother who had also lost an adult child in the massacre at Tiananmen Square. The Tiananmen Mothers began then to grow to 150 mothers, and their families, banding together to provide support to each other as they urge Chinese officials to provide information in the unsolved investigations of their children’s arrest, death and/or disappearance.
According to The Tiananmen Mothers, sixty-four people, most of them young students, were killed during the Tiananmen protests in 1989. Others disappeared without a trace. Others were arrested and are still under penal custody. To date, the government of the PRC – People’s Republic of China in Beijing has not provided any transparent investigation into the allegations. In opposition to the request of the Mothers of Tiananmen, cases have been left unsolved with large and looming questions left unanswered.
In 2003, Ding Zilin was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her heroism and bravery. In 2005, she was arrested by PRC security forces and summarily released, along with two other Tiananmen Mothers, Ms. Huang Jinping and Ms. Zhang Xianling, as the government warned them not to attempt to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
“Our group of ailing mothers know that time is running short,” said Ding Zilin in a very recent June 4, 2010 newsletter released by the Tiananmen Mothers. “But even on the edge of death we continue to move forward.”
“We believe that China today is at a critical point in time,” added Zilin recently during a plea to open public access in China to open and public freedom of information via the internet. “Is it (PRC – People’s Republic of China) striding forward or stepping back?,” asked Ding in her newsletter. “The decision must be, in accord with international practice in following the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, that (the PRC) not hesitate to defend its citizens’ freedom of speech… Freedom of speech is found in open media and access to information,” she stated with conviction.
Does Truth Matter?
“Families of disappeared persons (in Iran) seeking information from the authorities have been shown albums of photographs of the dead reportedly containing hundreds of photographs,” said a September 2009 Campaign Report on Human Rights by the International Campaign for Human Rights Iran. “Some have reported seeing “hundreds” of corpses in makeshift morgues,” continues the report. “Many bodies were reportedly buried in anonymous graves in Behesht Zahra cemetery overnight.” Does truth matter to the leadership in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran?
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, in the gardens at the Schloss Leopoldskron following the 2007 Salzburg Seminar Session No. 433. Image: Wikimedia
“Truth matters. Responsibility matters,” said Time Magazine in a November, 2006, news campaign highlighting, 60 Years of Asian Heroes when Beijing hero, Ding Zilin, was placed on the cover of Time. Her face was placed on the cover series with the likes of 1991 Nobel Peace Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known to the world as Mahatma Ghandi.
Truth is something Sara Shourd’s mother, Nora, wants to share with the world. “When Sarah, Shane and Josh were arrested it was not friendly,” continued Nora in her interview with Elahe Amani. “The border guards gestured for them to come over,” she continued, “fired shots and then came across and arrested them. Not friendly at all, (those) men with guns.”
Mothers and family members are often the only public voice of advocacy a political prisoner has left when legal representation is cut off and communication with prisoners is limited. The voice of a family member often takes the place of a prisoner who needs to report health conditions, or share unknown facts in their case.
On a recent campaign by the Mourning Mothers of Iran, a “truth-seeking commission” was suggested to be made up of “Iranian citizens and human-rights activists” to bring public transparency to investigations in the IRI cases of torture, death and cover-up of three Iranian students who were arrested and sent to their deaths in the notorious Kahrizak Detention Center in Tehran.
This is not the first time claims of crimes against humanity have surfaced connected to events at Kahrizak. Amid many rumors of torture and death at Kahrizak Detention Center, Ramin Pourandarjani, a 26 year old Iranian physician working once a week at Kahrizak Detention Center to complete his military service, was discovered dead, under “mysterious circumstances,” by his father after being called to Tehran police headquarters, November 10, 2009.
“Dr. Pourandarjani had been interviewed by a special parliamentary committee charged with investigating allegations of abuses during the post-election unrest. Before his death he reportedly received threats to prevent him from revealing the abuses he had witnessed at Kahrizak,” said a joint November 25, 2009, letter to the IRI Office of the Tehran Prosecutor, by Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “He (Dr. Pourandarjani) had also reportedly been forced to certify that one detainee had died of meningitis,” continued the letter.
Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture & other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment mentioned the ethical responsibility of doctors and health workers in a formal statement to the United Nations in 2006. “I take this opportunity to call upon medical doctors and other health professionals to fulfill their legal and ethical obligations towards torture survivors, including the obligation to document and report instances of torture and political violence,” he said.
“I have to say that I am really concerned about the situation (in Iran),” said Special Rapporteur Nowak, in a March 11, 2010 statement to Radio Free Europe. Nowak is also in favor of the closure of the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo. In July 2010, IRI Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Kahrizak detention center to be permanently closed down.
A Mother’s Bravery on Human Rights
When the Mourning Mothers of Iran (Mothers of Laleh) went to protest the deaths of their adult children in public at Laleh Park in Tehran on a Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2010, they were arrested immediately and taken to Vozara Detention Center. In all, thirty-three mothers were placed in detention. Reports of harsh handling by the police was confirmed when nine of the Mothers were taken to two separate hospitals. Later, the Mothers were released, but the message by IRI security authorities was clear. Speaking out, marching and/or grieving in public and/or holding pictures of a loved one in public with a lit candle could create dangerous repercussions for the Mothers.
Parvin Fahimi, mother of killed post-election protester, Sohrab Arabi. Image: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
“No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers,” said Hadi Ghaemi, director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
When Parvin (Ameneh Khatoon) Fahimi’s 19 year old son, Sohrab Arabi, went missing during the Iranian post-election street protests in June 2009, Parvin began an earnest search to find him. She didn’t know her search would last for 25 grueling days. The search ended, when Fahimi identified the body of her dead son in Tehran’s Prophet Hospital morgue. He had been shot dead before the many days of unanswered anguished questions.
After her son’s death, Parvin Fahimi, sent her voice out into the public with cries of injustice and calls for investigations. “I won’t remain silent,” said Arabi’s mother, Parvin.
“The Iranian government is determined to silence all dissenting voices,” said Claudio Cordone, Interim Secretary General for Amnesty International. Even though Parvin Fahimi was cautioned by Tehran police not to “memorialize” her son in public, she has recently released an important public statement, “I would forgive the murderers of my son on the unconditional release of political prisoners.”
Nora Shourd is still waiting to find out more about the charges in her daughter’s incarceration. “Two male interrogators control every minute, everyday of Sarah’s life,” explains Nora Shourd in her interview with Elahe Amani for WNN. “Sarah is anxious about the unknowns. Even with this, she dances alone in her cell. Sometimes, other women prisoners will walk by Sarah’s cell and try to talk to her. They whisper, ‘Sarah we love you, we love your mother, stay strong.’ I am sure this puts them in danger,” Nora continued.
“I lost Sohrab for the crime of freedom, love, and peace (in Iran),” said Fahimi. “Let remain and live the rest of the children of this land.”
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In this recent interview with Amnesty International, Cindy Hickey – mother of U.S. hiker, Shane Bauer and Nora Shourd – mother of U.S. hiker, Sarah Shourd share updates on conditions in the detainment of their adult children. Since May 2010, the mothers have received no communications from Iranian officials or from Evin prison where their children have been incarcerated. Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer have been kept in one prison cell together since December 2009. Sarah Shourd has been kept in solitary confinement for over one year since her arrest July 31, 2009. This 2:01 min video is a July 30, 2010, AmnestyUSA YouTube release.
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- For more information on this topic go to:
- Change for Equality website
- “From Protest to Prison – Iran One Year After the Election,” – Amnesty International, June 2010
- “Using Law Against Enforced Disappearances – Practical Guide for Relatives of Disappeared Persons and NGOs,” – Linking Solidarity, Aim for Human Rights, The Netherlands, 2009
- Tiananmen Mothers website (use Google translate )
- “You Can Detain Anyone for Anything,” Human Rights Watch, January 2008
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Staff journalist for Women News Network – WNN, Elahe Amani, is director of Technology for Student Affairs at California State University. She is also a 2007 Lillian Robles Award winner for her outstanding community service, social education efforts and feminist activism and is co-chair of Women Intercultural Network (WIN).
Human rights journalist and rights advocate, Lys Anzia, is Editor-at-Large for Women News Network – WNN.
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Additional sources for this article include Human Rights Watch, Tiananmen Mothers, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Amnesty International, 2010 Burma Freedom Calendar, Human Rights and Democracy Library – United Nations, Assistance Association of Political Prisoners – Burma, EDIEC – Enforced Disappearances Information Exchange Center, FRONTLINE Tehran Bureau, Radio Free Europe, UN Office Of The High Commissioner For Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Change for Equality, Salzburg Global Seminar, Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and The International Committee of the Red Cross.
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Letter to President Ahmadinejad – Co-Directors, Aprovecho
Aug 27th
H.E. Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President, Islamic Republic of Iran
Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
August 20, 2010
Dear President Ahmadinejad,
It is with great distress and utmost concern that we urge the release of our past co-director and friend Josh Fattal and his two traveling companions Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer.
Our organization, Aprovecho, a Spanish word for “I make the best use of,” has been involved in providing technical aid to the world’s poor and empowering education on our 40 acre site for over 30 years. Among other things, we are credited with designing the world’s most fuel efficient cook stoves, advancing energy efficient building methods that require only local materials, and promoting sustainable agriculture methods. These technologies and techniques are extended around the world in an effort to support and empower individuals everywhere.
Josh was recently a long time staff member of Aprovecho. His work took him to Chiapas, Mexico, and Guatemala where he helped villagers develop fuel efficient and low particulate cook stoves for their kitchens. He was also an invaluable member of the team on our Oregon campus where he led and organized educational programming. His enthusiasm for life, his un-yielding optimism, and devotion to a better more equitable and peaceful world has always been absolutely outstanding.
We have watched with hope for a noble and affirming resolution to Josh, Shane, and Sarah’s captivity. Holding out hope that you will at once transcend the political posturing between our two governments and make the moral and humanitarian example you are currently in your power to make. Show the world that justice and mercy are a greater force than power and politics by releasing the hikers.
Josh, Shane, and Sarah have been in prison for nearly 13 months. We are extremely concerned for their mental and physical health. It has been reported that Sarah has a serious untreated gynecological condition while Shane is having digestive disorders. Because of their sense of isolation, and lack of due process under the law, they have begun to consider a hunger strike as a means of action on their own behalf. In their state, we are concerned this will only bring about greater harm to their wellbeing.
The toll this has taken on the families of these three is incalculable. As a father and doctor we beseech you to consider the human ramifications of this isolation on the part of the hikers and the relentless absence of knowledge of their own children’s wellbeing on the part of the parents and siblings.
Finally, the incarceration of Josh, Shane, and Sarah is utterly disproportionate to their crime. Iran has set a horrible example by denying the hikers access to legal representation, allowing little family communication, limiting their access to proper medical care, and parading them as American spies. This last element is completely baseless and ridiculous given the history of these three individuals. In short, these past 12 months have been 12 months too long for these innocent travelers who at worst passed across a vague national boundary.
We urge you to hasten the return of our friend Josh and his two companions. Allow them to be in the embrace of their families and friends. They must be able to get on with their lives and to blossom once again. Let them get back to work making the world a more wonderful place.
Sincerely,
Abel Kloster, Tao Orion, Jeremy Roth, Christopher Foraker, Rosemary Kirincic, and Michael Hatfield
Aprovecho Co-Directors
“Dear Sarah, Shane & Josh, You have brought us together” ~ Janette Watt
Aug 24th
Dear Shane, Sarah and Josh,
Please know that for us, this is not just another FB application. You are in our hearts continuously, in our prayers always, …each of us in our own part of the world have come together to care about you, to wrap you in love — and to raise our voices collectively so that you will be freed NOW! 
You have brought us together. Out of your struggle, your pain, the pain and struggle of your families and close friends, has come this gift of connectedness… and many more. I am sorry that you paid such a high price for us to gather so that we could understand (or for others be reminded).
namaste and dohiya (peace),
Janette Watt
Canada
A BIRTHDAY POEM FOR SARAH: AUNT KAREN
Aug 10th
Dear Sarah,
I wrote this remembering you as a little girl looking out the car window and asking, “why is the moon following me?”
Your Mom probably said something like, “because it’s protecting you.”
All of your loved ones together are the voice of the moon.
WHITE YONDER
How can they know
who you have become
in one fierce year
of inner transport ?
Can’t they see your
particles dissolve
and subsequently
become pure light?
How can they reach you
their ownselves out of reach
as you consciously speak
your deep sanity?
How can they take away
what dreams you into
the white yonder
the voice of the moon?
Loving you
on your birthday.
~Aunt Karen
A POEM: BEING FREE
Aug 9th
This poem was written by the 10 year old daughter of one of the hiker’s supporters, Vesper Lewis:
Being Free
I want to be free like a bird flying above
I want to sing like a blue jay singing to a dove
I want to run as fast as a tiger with firey red stripes
all through the forest lighting up the night.
I want to be like a bunny hopping along the path to get where I belong.
The grassy area of open space that will be my home my base.
I want to be the clouds drifting above the sheep.
That’s what it feels like to be free.
~ by Sitara
Vesper Lewis, recently wrote an article about the hikers:
“Detained in Iran: How We Can Help” for the Elephant Journal.
LETTER TO SARAH FROM A FRIEND: #1YR TOO LONG
Aug 5th
LETTER TO SARAH, WRITTEN ON 30 JULY 2010:
I wrote the following letter to Sarah late Friday night before the next day’s action—I’d like to send it to her. For now, I’m sharing it here.
~ J. Heyward
Dear Sarah,
First…I miss you so incredibly. I’m pretty sure an hour doesn’t pass in any given day when I’m not thinking of you and Shane and feeling the very complete frustration of this unlikely entanglement, this unjust punishment you’re receiving for the truly nefarious deeds of the US you were trying to counter. It is unconscionable and becomes more outrageous each day.
Over the past year, I’ve imagined—many times—a conversation with you once you’re released from that cage. I’m often transported back to that last place where we sat together, at the top of the stairs at my house in San Francisco, when you told me you were going to Syria to live with Shane for a year, maybe more.
Sarah & her Mother Nora Hug for the First Time in Over a Year
But now, while so many of my visual memories of you are being threatened to be replaced with pictures that are recycling through the daily press, I can feel your presence as much as I ever did in person. And it is a strong, unique and unmistakable presence. It feels like commitment, honesty, perseverance, justice. This is very personal to us and political to them…politicians…and this is nothing we could’ve ever been prepared for. Your spirit and Shane’s is with me often and it is clear why we are friends and comrades; the justice we seek is very powerful, universal, transformational.
I was afraid that night you told me you were going to Syria…not afraid for your safety but afraid that I would never get to spend more time with you and talk with you more, as I suppose you had intended by inviting me to the Radical Reading Group before. And actually, there were so many invitations you extended to me that I didn’t return. You can’t imagine how regretful I am of this now. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to be sitting with you now, even in silence.
I think that you may know, I have a solitary life even in relation to my work. There’s no particular reason for this other than that I am incredibly scared and sad to know of all of the terrible things that happen in the world. Sometimes I just want to cry—actually sob and sometimes scream—until I find that rooted place in me that can move forward with confidence to fight alongside others who appear to already have the resolve and peace and vision that I have yet to earn. This is why I didn’t seem to fit into the reading group—even though you picked good books: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Regulating the Poor, End of Capitalism. I didn’t want to read any more theory. I wanted to get out and talk with people, talk about what was going on around us and do something about it. And so did you, I know. It’s just that somehow you manage to squeeze all of it in. I’m still catching up, can only do things one at a time.
Sarah on a Train, Shortly Before her Detention in Iran
Now you’ve often entered that solitary space where I am accustomed to stowing myself away as I try to imagine what we’re going to do to end these wars, to turn this colonialist nightmare around. So really, I think I’ve spent more time with you (however remotely) in the past year than in the past seven or eight years because I know that’s what you were doing in Syria, ending the isolation—bridging a cultural gap and providing solidarity like so many people have throughout history when the US has waged war on entire regions and millions of people. I didn’t know that when you left but I know it now.
It will be amazing if you receive this letter. Can you write back? How will I know. How can you know how much people are thinking of you? Maybe you do know somehow.
Please rest if you can, knowing that there are many of us working day and night to gain your freedom. I think you, Shane and Josh have more than 17 thousand supporters online who are following case, rooting for you. And there are literally hundreds of people who are connected to friends of yours who know your vision and purpose and are telling a true narrative of your indomitable, kind spirit. You will meet all of them soon.
A new article came out today in the Christian Science Monitor that is the best one yet, about your commitment to ending US-Israeli war and aggression and your connection, same purpose and direction as Tristan Anderson and Rachel Corrie. Shon has been working really hard to get these facts out there, and it looks like some US press is finally starting to cover your story from this perspective. We’re really trying to make sure that your work in Syria and Shane’s purpose in Iraq is supported in all of our actions and conversations.
Tomorrow is the big day. One year. Please hold on, Sarah. We still have a long way to go in life together.
Miss you so much.
Love to you, Shane and Josh.
Heyward
DEAREST DAUGHTER: #1YR & 3 DAYS, BY @TRENORA
Aug 4th
My Sweet Daughter:
Sarah & Nora, Together in Iran
As I take up my pen to write you today, I am overcome with strong feelings of love for you. Since you have been arrested this intense love I feel has grown stronger, even more intense and all consuming. On days like this I feel like I have been split in two and the two parts cannot be put together until you are home.
I struggle with the right words to tell you; I struggle with the way to best say it to you and wish I could be more articulate, my words could say more. words cannot always say more, they cannot say everything and I am left without means to tell you. I could tell you in an embrace, I could tell you with my eyes but this I cannot do. So I try in the clumsiness of words to tell you what my heart is crying out to say. You are to me such a woman of courage, such a woman of strength.
I know you look at your captors square in the face and are not bowed. I know you feel the courage of your years standing up for the injustices of people everywhere. Right now I feel a part of a circle fo women everywhere: mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives whose hearts break for those they love; who would do anything humanly possible to end their sadness, to ease their suffering.
I know that as you face each day alone in your cell not knowing when it will end, not knowing the world’s thoughts, you must use that store of courage and strength and give some back to yourself for renewal. my hope is that you can call on all your memories of good times spent and always know that love is pouring into your cell from the millions who now know you and care greatly about you.
All my love and more, Mom
#USHIKER SARAH’S LAST EMAIL TO HER MOTHER: @TRENORA
Aug 3rd
On July 30th 2009, Sarah Shourd, wrote the following email to her mother Nora in the US:
Hello Sweetness,
So, we’re traveling.
Actually, we’re in N.Iraq!
It’s totally safe.
The Kurds in this area have been pro-American since 1991. No single American has ever been hurt on Kurdish territory.
So, don’t worry.
Tonight we’re going camping.
I love you.
My article is going to be published on the 7th!!!
There were fireworks in the streets of Solemeniya last night, they just had their first democratic elections.
Love Sarah
The following day she was abducted by Iranian authorities and has remained in solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorius Evin prison, ever since.
Sarah in Iran
Sarah Shourd has been held in solitary confinement in Iran for over a year now.
This film , by a Safe World for Women, starts with the last words she wrote to her mother the day before she was kidnapped with her fiance Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal.
Then, in an interview with Chris Crowstaff from a UK based women’s rights NGO, Sarah’s mother talks about the conditions in which Sarah is being held and how Sarah will be coping.
MUSIC:
“Carry Me Home” by Shannon Smy & Seize the Day
DEAREST DAUGHTER: #1YR & 2 DAYS, BY @TRENORA
Aug 3rd
Dearest Daughter (One Year and Two Days):
Today as I write, as I have written to you every day for the past year and two days, I look at a picture of you. I am lucky that I have favorite ones of you over the years of your life.
You will remember this story: We were together in Guatemala. Your skin is brown in the picture and your eyes look right at me. There are trees behind you and a lake whose name I can’t recall…doesn’t matter.
I am remembering this story as something strange and exciting that happened to us that day, actually that night. We had gone to a small village nearby to eat, on foot of course. There was a huge rainstorm so we couldn’t walk back right away. By the time the storm had stopped, and we had started to walk; it was dark, very dark, no moon, no lights at all. It was the darkest night ever.
We had no flashlight and could not even see in front of us or the road beneath our feet. We held hands and sometimes a bike would whoosh by us in the dark, but we kept walking. It was more by instinct than anything that we knew when we had walked far enough because WE COULD NOT SEE.
When we thought we had gone far enough, you asked in Spanish: “Are we at _____ hotel?” of a passing stranger…and we were! We had walked in total darkness together for a mile, at least.
I am so proud to be your mother thinking of this silly story. You have so much courage and I know you will stay strong there in that prison cell. You are not alone Sarah. I am holding your hand and you are holding mine and walking thru the darkness together…and we will find our way home…
All my love and more,
Mom
SARAH, SHANE & JOSH: WHY WE ARE NO DIFFERENT BY @YUMIWILSON
Aug 2nd
REPUBLISHED FROM CITY BRIGHTS:
Posted By: Yumi Wilson | August 01 2010 at 07:00 AM
Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll probably say I’m a bit too trusting. I tend to believe in the goodness of people, unless I see otherwise.
I thought about that a lot today, after losing my wallet and cell phone near the corner of 17th and Mission streets.
Granted, losing the phone is never a bad thing. We could all stand to spend more time connecting with people the old-fashioned way: By meeting them in person.
Still, there is something disturbing about losing your phone—and your wallet.
It all happened so fast. I had just finished interviewing some friends of three American hikers who are being held in Iran on suspicion of spying. I had planned to update my blog, telling readers that friends of Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal wanted everyone to know that the three young Americans are not spies, and that they had simply wanted to go on vacation to the mountains of Kurdistan for adventure and fun.
The friends and supporters, I had learned earlier, were going to march to Dolores Park from 16th and Mission streets.
Group demanding release of hikers in Iran marches to Dolores Park.
Hoping to catch them from the start, I had taken BART and gotten off at the 16th street station. I didn’t see them there, so I hurried toward Dolores Park, where they had said via Twitter they would end up.
At the park, my son seemed pleased that he had elected to come with me to the Mission, a place we haven’t frequented since he stopped going to Synergy in the first grade (he’ll be a freshman next month).
Together, we counted about 40 people, but I noticed that there were many more people at the park who didn’t seem to care about the marchers. In fact, I didn’t think the rally would last that long, and I envisioned getting back home quickly.
But with my son wanting to stay longer to enjoy an accordion player at the rally and then a trapeze artist in another area of the park, I took my time to meander, to observe and to listen without saying a word.
Rally in Dolores Park
Still, I had the same question that many people seem to have: What were Sarah, Shane and Josh doing so close to the border? Why didn’t they know better? Why did they go there in the first place?
And then, just like a bad Hollywood ending, the same thing happened to me. Only I wasn’t in Iran. I was in the Mission District.
“Where are we?” my son asked.
I had strayed a few blocks past my favorite restaurant on 16th Street. But even I knew enough to sense I had entered an “iffy” area. Within a minute or two of having my phone, someone had brushed past me and taken my wallet and phone. By the time I called to stop my credit cards and phone, someone had already made a purchase at a gas station in the Mission.
“We should have taken the car,” my son said.
Of course, I tried to assure my son that our choice of transit had nothing to do with my credit card being stolen. I also tried to shut out what a man had said about the Mission: Avoid it, unless you want to be messed with.
I had tried to ignore the advice, casting it off as an unfair stereotype of a neighborhood often misrepresented in the media. But now, huddled under a storefront in fear of every person who passed me, I wondered whether he was right.
I know it’s silly. The Mission is a wonderful place, filled with good people. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, as some of people at the rally noted about the three hikers.
“They are innocent people,” said Meredith Walters, an English student at UC Berkeley. “They are good people who dedicated their lives to making the world a better place.”
Messages to the Hikers from Supporters
And that might be among the greatest lessons learned Saturday afternoon by attending the “Free the Hikers” rally in Dolores Park.
“They are extraordinary cultural diplomats,” said Margaret Roberts, who works as a Spanish interpreter in Oakland’s courts. “We are all safer and better informed and more connected to the larger world with people like Sarah, Shane and Josh out in the world.”
Jennifer Miller, another friend at the rally, added: “They were living and working to make a bridge between cultures.”
Sarah, Shane and Josh took a road less traveled for many of the same reasons we all do. We are curious about the world around us. We are adventurous and want to try new things. And we believe in the goodness of people, just as I am trying to do, even now.
See more photos of the event:
