3000 DAYS without FREEDOM ~ Rebecca ‘Walker’ Christoforo

When hikers Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer were tried in Iran several weeks ago, I felt a kind of quiet excitement settle into our campaign. It was obvious that they would be acquitted, having already spent two years in prison for a crime they did not commit. Their story, their passports, travel documents, and witnesses all showed the authorities what we, their family and friends, knew all along. Josh and Shane are simply the curious type, people who enjoy seeing things with their own eyes. They are not reckless, nor are they militant, and it would be even more absurd to assume they have a contract with the American government. I think a lot of us felt a sense of finality after the trial, and we began the preparations to welcome them home. But this morning, I received a call telling me that they had been charged with espionage and sentenced to 8 years of prison. 8 years. That’s almost 3000 days of waking up without fresh air, without sunshine, without games and books. 3000 days without direction and purpose, without the freedom to choose your lunch or ride your bicycle or listen to music. I don’t think most of us can comprehend the lifetimes that go by while living in confinement, or the desperation that can set in when we feel our autonomy stripped away and humanity ignored.

To fight this desperation, Josh and Shane have been ‘hunger striking’, or refusing to eat until concessions are made in their favor. It gives them leverage against their jailors, for (as terrible as it sounds) they are only valuable if alive. Shane’s fiancee Sarah Shourd, who was imprisoned with them but released for health reasons, tells us that they have already fasted several times to receive information about their case. Although she has had no contact with the two since returning home a little less than a year ago, she knows that they are continuing to fast- perhaps to receive letters, books, or more time in the courtyard.

Josh teaching IHP Health & Community 2009 students in Geneva, Switzerland

It is sad that Josh, who has studied and grown food so passionately, would be forced to take such measures. Before I knew him, he was working at the Aprovecho Sustainability Center, where he  spent several weeks eating only foods that came from a 100-mile radius of the farm, which included a pilgrimage to the Oregon coast for salt. A couple of years later, in 2009, we met while traveling with a community health study abroad program. He was the teaching fellow, which placed him somewhere in between us students and our professors. Josh didn’t teach often, but when he did his lessons were always memorable and frequently beautiful. There was one class in particular that stands out to me now, those first days of the program in Switzerland. Josh began the class by asking us to think about our relationship with food, and reminding us that all good food comes from sunlight and clean water. He used the ‘power point’ program as a way to illustrate his ideas. The slides were simple, with no images and just a couple words. One looked like this:

FOOD = SUNLIGHT