FREEDOM FAST
3000 DAYS without FREEDOM ~ Rebecca ‘Walker’ Christoforo
Aug 25th
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
It is a simple idea, and one that often gets forgotten in refrigerated aisles, but it was the beginning of a lesson that Josh would continue to impress upon us as the semester continued. Food is not something to be taken for granted, but something to cherish and consider. To know this can change how you relate to the world.
As I ate today, and thought of Josh and his hunger fasting, and of the many others who have fasted in protest, I couldn’t help but feel it is a true crime that a man who has such a connection to his food would have to use it as a means to an end. Food equals sunlight, but in Evin prison food equals power and information. With the recent verdict on his trial, and with only 20 days to appeal, we anticipate that Josh and Shane will continue to fast. It is in solidarity with them that I, and several other students who traveled with Josh in 2009, will continue to fast as well.
Rebecca ‘Walker’ Christoforo
“As we wandered together, Josh reminded us who we were and what we could be” ~ Leah Katzelnick
Aug 4th
On July 31, 2009, I had stumbled into a small Internet café in Managua, Nicaragua to read tidings from the United States. My inbox was flooded with the news that my mentor, teacher, and dear friend Josh Fattal, as well as Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer, had been taken into custody by the Iranian authorities. I circled around the block on that bright morning and cried with frustration on the curb. A blossoming tree embraced me with its laden branches; Josh’s imprisonment could not have seemed more strange and distant in that moment.
IHP is built on the principle of uprooting its students, casting them adrift in the magnificent, edifying school of the world. Our books were conversations, our classrooms villages and non-profits. Everyone we met was our teacher. In the midst of continuous change, Josh was a focus of stability, a pivot point in our transformative journey. He was there to make us laugh, to lead us on to the next adventure, and always to reflect with us. When our minds were unmoored he philosophized us into the docks of heightened awareness, when we were lonely he culled from within us memories that revived our wearied souls. As we wandered together, Josh reminded us who we were and what we could be, connecting our seemingly lost and our realized selves.
I have wandered a great deal since our journey together. I passed my summer after the International Honors Program to India, China and South Africa in Nicaragua; devoted my last year at university exploring what I had learned of NGOs and volunteering during my travels on IHP and in Nicaragua; spent a summer studying Dengue Fever in a lab in North Carolina; and passed the next year pursuing a Masters in Public Health in England. Not only did Josh help guide me towards this path, but his imprint on my thought process allows me to re-equilibrate as environment and ideas whirl around me in endless flurry. Yet, while I have migrated, he has been confined and restricted. In a dulled environment, he is deprived of that world of change, the world that moves and inspires and nurtures. His sustenance is memories and the few shreds of correspondence that reach his dank cell.
What Josh always provided us with was comfort amidst the strangeness of change, grounding and familiarity within the foreign. Josh, the most positive, optimistic, vibrant person I have ever met, is certain to search for this home within the foreign, comfort despite suffering. I cannot possibly imagine the courage this requires. We hope our fast and love for Josh will stir the unmoving, embrace him with the familiar, and sustain in him, and the world, a vision of freedom. We hope to act as a stimulus to bring him home.
~ 
Leah Katzelnick
IHP Health and Community, ’09
Shane & Josh are tremendous people who deserve to be free ~ Becky Fisher
Jul 15th
Today, I am fasting in solidarity with Shane and Josh’s numerous hunger strikes in prison in Iran. I have known Sarah Shourd for many years, and I know Shane as well. I admired him when I first met him because of his intelligence and journalistic work. I admire him even more now. It takes a tremendous person to remain unbroken even after nearly two years in prison, and continue to fight, even if the only method for doing so is to refuse food. Shane and Josh are both tremendous people who deserve to be free. I hope that soon they will be.
~ Becky Fisher, SSJ friend
Fasting for Freedom on Independence Day ~ Crystal Rene
Jul 7th
July 4, 2011
The 4th of July is Independence Day, a celebration of freedom for all Americans. Shane and Josh have been robbed of that freedom and independence now for 702 days. I’m fasting today to stand in solidarity with Sarah Shourd and the family and friends of these two Americans, who will spend Independence Day in a prison cell. On July 5th, I’ll go back to work. I’ll eat however and whenever I choose. I’ll run errands, plan vacations, and connect with friends and family. Shane and Josh will continue to sit in a cell. As life goes back to normal for me on July 5, I will be more aware of their struggle, and I will continue to honor and support them in any small way I can.
~ Crystal Rene
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh and how you can join in, please see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
They want nothing more than the freedom to continue making this world a better place ~ Nazanin Boniadi, Spokesperson, Amnesty International USA
Jul 7th
Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. By now those names should resonate somewhere deep in your psyche. They are the American hikers who were detained in Iran on July 31, 2009, while they were hiking recreationally near the Ahmed Awa waterfall in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Besides the obvious injustice, what makes the fate of these three young Americans even more tragic and ironic is that they embody all that is good in human nature. They are educators and peace-activists who have spent years serving others and helping indigenous communities. They want nothing more than the freedom to continue making this world a better, fairer place.
Their case has caused a global outcry by human rights defenders and organizations citing violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iran is a signatory. After arresting them for illegal entry, Iranian authorities have broken numerous international laws by way of arbitrary detention, lack of due process, torture by isolation, and by denying them adequate legal counsel or consular visits.
Shourd was released in September 2010 on $500,000 (U.S.) bail, at which point she returned home to the United States and has been on a tireless campaign alongside the hikers’s families to free her fiance (Bauer) and friend (Fattal) ever since. If you Google the word “hikers” you will find that their “Free The Hikers” campaign website appears right at the top, second only to Wikipedia, a testament to just how far-reaching their collective efforts have been.
On June 3, 2011, I joined Shourd in Los Angeles for the campaign’s rolling hunger strike in solidarity with Bauer and Fattal. I was amazed by her courage, warmth and undiminished sense of hope in spite of all she has been through. It takes an extraordinary person to not lose faith in humanity when faced with such a grave injustice.
Bauer and Fattal remain in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on trumped-up charges of espionage. The hikers have not received a fair trial nor have they been formally charged with recognizable criminal offenses.
Media statements given by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggest that Iran may be seeking concessions by holding Bauer and Fattal captive, an act tantamount to hostage-taking. In fact, for many, this may bring to mind the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis when fifty-two Americans were held hostage in Iran for 444 days, only to be used by the Iranian government as political bargaining chips in its dealings with the United States.
The world cannot stand by while the hikers’s rights continue to be sacrificed in this game of political oneupmanship. Iran is obliged to comply with the provisions of the ICCPR, abide by international standards for a fair trial and allow Bauer and Fattal to return home to their families and loved ones immediately.
Nazanin Boniadi
Actress/ Spokesperson Amnesty International USA
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh and how you can join in, see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
Josh showed me what it meant to be a good person ~ Oliver Human
Jun 29th
I am fasting for the release of Josh and Shane. It is a tiny act of solidarity for my friend who I’ve only had a short time to know. Food is actually the reason I came to admire Josh to the extent I have.
We were together one morning in a township in South Africa when he was on the IHP tour (this is where I met him). After a night of braaiing (barbequing) with the students, Josh and I were walking to class past the creche which hosted the braai. We dropped by to make sure that everything was in order from the previous night’s festivities.
When we walked in and asked, the response from the lady who ran the kitchen was that she had a problem and promptly led us to the kitchen sink which was blocked. Without even blinking an eye, Josh immediately set about the task of taking the kitchen sink to pieces in order to solve this problem (which in the end wasn’t even his). I was truly impressed and I think the lady who ran the kitchen even more so as this foreign visitor was so willing to get down on his hands and knees and fix the problem himself. It was a huge job of taking the plumbing apart to dislodge a chicken bone deep in the kitchen’s waste water outlet.
It is hard to describe to those who haven’t spent time in South Africa the truly impressive nature of this act in which a wealthy visitor gets his hands dirty to help somebody from the poorest strata of society without even a blink of an eye. I am fasting, if not for anything else, for this one small act of humanity in which Josh showed me what it meant to be a good person.
~ Oliver Human
Stellenbosch, South Africa
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh and how you can join in see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
The Greatest Deprivation of All ~ Bessa Kautz
Jun 27th
June 22 2011
Fasting for Shane and Josh has given me time to think about deprivation. I know in two days I’ll be able to eat and drink anything I want, it’s so temporary. I imagine Shane and Josh sitting in their cells day after day not having any control over what they put in their bodies, what they see every day. Every book and letter and movie and music is censored. Every morsel of food or sip of water is given to them rationed by powers that make no sense. It is an exercise in humility and patience every day for them.
The greatest deprivation of all is to not see your loved ones, to not know when you are going to see them again. Waiting two days to eat is so much easier visiting my sisters, my friends, laughing with my co-workers. It reminds me how little the body needs and how much the heart needs. Shane and Josh have been feeding their hearts with memories and thier own friendship for almost 2 years now. And with, I imagine, sweet anticipation for an amazing future of love and laughter that begins the day their unjust imprisonment ends!
~ Bessa Kautz
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh and how you can join in, see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
We all have the ability to support and inspire ~ Lynne Cox
Jun 23rd
June 20, 2011
Today I am fasting in solidarity for the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer from prison in Iran. You may have heard about Josh and Shane and their friend, Sarah Shourd. They were hiking along the Iranian border and taken and put into an Iranian prison. Through great efforts and compassion, Sarah Shourd has been released, but Shane and Josh are still in prison. They have been held for twenty-four months in two, ten by fourteen foot cells. Josh and Shane have endured terrible hardships and they have fasted for seventeen days just to be able to make one phone call home.
As a long distance open water swimmer, an athlete, and writer, I think about my community of athletes, writers, from around the world who have learned how to endure, and how to overcome great obstacles to achieve great goals. Our strength, fortitude, and positive attitude is strengthened by the support of our families and friends. Their positive words, their acts of support, make all the difference and we can make a positive difference too. We all have the ability to support and inspire the United States Government and the Iranian Governments to overcome obstacles, bridge the distance between the countries, and bring Josh and Shane home soon. Please join in these efforts.
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh and how you can join in, see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
Today I fasted for freedom ~ Kristina Lim
Jun 21st
June 20, 2011
Today I fasted to free Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. One day of the 688 that Shane and Josh have spent imprisoned in Iran. 688 days in a ten foot by fourteen foot cell. 688 days without seeing trees, without breathing free and unbarred air, without biking in the sun. 688 days without being able to hold their families.
I fasted for Shane and Josh to once again breathe free air and run without walls or bars. To once again cook dinner with friends and family. To once again be hugged so tight it hurts. To once again join their global community committed to fighting for a better world.
Today I fasted for all of the people imprisoned in the world. I fasted for all the people who have sacrificed for something greater then they are.
Today I fasted for freedom.
~ Kristina Lim
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh please see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
I stand with my friend Shane and his friend Josh ~ Ethan Rafal
Jun 21st
June 17, 2011
I am a photographer and conceptual artist living in San Francisco, CA. I have joined this hunger strike today to stand with my friend Shane and his friend Josh.
Working together with refugees in eastern Chad and Sudan, I saw the kind of person Shane was- compassionate, dedicated, extremely hard working, and somehow optimistic. I often see him in my memories from the time – Shane looking up from his computer with this coffee stained grin, long at work transcribing and translating before I’d even brushed my teeth – and find myself moved to tears. I wonder constantly- how can someone so committed to peace be so violated? How can someone so committed to speaking for the voiceless be so silenced?
I stand with Shane and today I honor him too – for all that he taught me, for always making the time, and most of all for that inexhaustible faith in humanity that was his work.
~ Ethan Rafal
NB: For more information on the rolling hunger strike for Shane & Josh please see http://bit.ly/SSJfast
