HOW TO HELP
Suggestions of ways to make a difference in the campaign to expedite the release of the hikers.
Statement from Shane, Josh, Sarah and their families regarding restriction of Mr. Shafii’s Freedom
Oct 13th
We are deeply disturbed that Mr. Masoud Shafii, the Iranian lawyer who defended us, was briefly detained in Tehran last week and has now been prevented from leaving Iran. Throughout the case, Mr. Shafii always acted in accordance with Iranian law and in the interests of justice, to the extent that he was permitted to represent his clients. We feel very close to Mr. Shafii and consider him part of our families. He has sacrificed a great deal to defend us. This included not being present when his dear sister Shahla passed away, and he was stopped from leaving Iran to visit her grave. We urge the Iranian authorities not to restrict Mr. Shafii’s freedoms and to stop bringing grief to him and his family for no good reason.
— Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd, and the Bauer, Fattal and Shourd Families
CALL TO ACTION: Will President Ahmadinejad Travel To New York Yet Again Without Releasing Shane and Josh?
Sep 9th
Share this postcard on- and off-line! Download the whole series! http://ht.ly/6qs7G
Dear Supporters,
Later this month, the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will take place in New York for the third time since Shane, Josh and Sarah were detained by the Iranian government in July 2009. Last year, Sarah was released just days before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew to New York to address the meeting – and he plans to attend again this year with Shane and Josh still in prison for no reason.
When Sarah and her mother Nora met with President Ahmadinejad in New York one year ago, he told Sarah, “I hope you and Shane will be married very soon.” He also said that Josh and Shane are “good kids” and promised to ask the judiciary to show “leniency and expediency” in resolving their case. Even two years ago he used the same language!
Where are the results? Another horrible, anguished year has passed for Josh, Shane and everyone who loves them. Expectations for Shane and Josh’s release ran high during the Islamic month of Ramadan when Iranian Foreign Minister Salehi stated that he “hoped” that their July 31 trial would “result in their freedom.” The Iranian Ambassador to Iraq said he “expected a release very soon.” Instead, Shane and Josh remain locked away for no crime and a ridiculously unjust sentence has been imposed.
IF Shane and Josh are not released before the UNGA we are going to need your help. Free the Hikers will be protesting peacefully near the UN in New York during the week of September 19th. The theme is “None of Us are Free Until Josh and Shane Are Free.” We plan to build a large cell as a visual prop for the rally. In solidarity with Shane and Josh, family and supporters will stand inside the cell, with other supporters will stand in front of it holding up signs and banners.
If you can’t join us in New York in late September, we want to ask you to organize SOLIDARITY ACTIONS in your city or town:
Dimensions of Detainment NYC
WHAT: Build your own cell and display it in a public place along with a sign that says: “We are Not Free Until Josh and Shane are Free,” then get inside!
WHEN: The week of September 19th.
WHERE: Central Action: The United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza,
East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Ave, NYC.
Solidarity Actions: In your city, town or neighborhood!
HOW: You can build your cell out of something as simple as a cardboard box, or you can use four bodies and string like in previous actions in the streets of San Francisco and New York City.
Use your imagination and skill to create a visual reminder of the conditions that Josh and Shane have been forced to live in for more then two years. Please take photographs of your cell and send them to: Farah at Free the Hikers so we can post them on our site.
Connect with us and thousands of other supporters on our facebook page to coordinate an event in your locale!
Downloadable postcards also available there!
Thank you all for standing by Josh, Shane and all of us. Your participation is crucial for the success of this campaign; we couldn’t do it without you!
Until Freedom,
The Families of Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd
Free the Hikers Jewelry Fundraiser – Sarah Taylor Designs
Aug 30th
Sarah Taylor started making necklaces for the Free the Hikers campaign almost 2 years ago. It was at a Free the HIkers fundraiser organized by Jackie Brock, the sister of a good friend of Josh Fattal’s, that Sarah Taylor first donated a necklace for the silent auction. Jackie’s Mom won the necklace and promptly mailed it to Laura Fattal. It seemed fitting that all three Moms should have a necklace so the Brock family ordered 2 more. When the 3 Moms went to Iran in May 2010 they each wore their necklace.
Knowing this, created an attachment for Sarah Taylor to the hikers’ situation and it all spiraled from there. Sarah now has a ‘Free the Hikers Fundraiser’ page on her website, it offers necklaces engraved with “Free the Hikers,” “Free All Three” and another with “Shane, Sarah and Josh.” With each new necklace the word is spreading. Sarah Taylor says she is looking forward to the day she will never have to make another necklace because they will be free. “But until then, I feel fortunate to be able to help.. every person placing an order is so grateful to be able to support Free the Hikers and to spread the word.”
To view sample necklaces and earrings, see http://www.sarahtaylordesigns.com/free_the_hikers_fundraiser
To order your own necklace, contact sarah@sarahtaylordesigns.com
![Shane-Bauer-Sarah-Shourd-Josh-Fattal[1]](http://fthblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Shane-Bauer-Sarah-Shourd-Josh-Fattal1-64x64.jpg "Shane-Bauer-Sarah-Shourd-Josh-Fattal[1]")
We NEED you tomorrow NYC! ~ Sarah Shourd
Jul 28th
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow is Friday, the big day already! I am writing because I noticed on Facebook that there are quite a few people that have signed up as “maybes” for the protest tomorrow for Shane and Josh in NYC. I just want to say, if there’s ANY doubt in your mind as to whether your presence will make a difference, let me reassure you it will make a HUGE difference to me, to Shane and Josh’s families, supporters and to the large entourage of media outlets from around the world that we expect to be there tomorrow!
Having a big group of supportive people standing by us tomorrow will turn what is bound to be a very difficult day at the end of a long, stressful week (at the end of two arduous, unbelievable years!) into a very difficult but BEAUTIFUL experience. Please, please try and come out! Hopefully, we’ll be telling Shane and Josh all about it very soon!
RSVP to and share our event blog post and facebook event listing! Thank you!
Big Love! Sarah
2 YEARS TOO LONG for Shane and Josh!!!
Jul 22nd
July 31, 2011 will be the second anniversary of Josh and Shane’s unjust detention and their “final hearing” in an Iranian court.
We need to call out LOUD and CLEAR for their far too long denied FREEDOM!!!
We need YOU to participate in three key 2 YEARS TOO LONG initiatives designed to do just that.
Please click on the links below for more information about each initiative.
1. Peaceful Protest, Iranian Mission to the UN, New York City, July 29 12pm ET
PLEASE join families, friends and supporters of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal in this protest that will kick off a 2 YEARS TOO LONG Weekend of Mobilization around the world!
Wear white and bring posters, banners, signs, hiking gear and most importantly your VOICES!
2. Week of Action: One Million Voices for Shane & Josh: International call in blitz, July 25-29
The San Francisco Bay Area supporters of Shane and Josh invite you to join One Million Voices for Shane and Josh; an international call-in blitz on the Iranian Interests section in Washington D.C. the week before their trial in Tehran.
Let’s remind the Iranian government that the whole world is watching and wants Bauer and Fattals’ immediate release to their family! Spread the word to make this the loudest reminder possible!
3. Weekend of Global Mobilization, July 29-31
We are calling on YOU to take action in your community, in whichever way feels right for you. You can put up posters in your community, you can light a candle, you can say a prayer, you can record a video or write a song, you can write an op-ed or post a blog, you can screen ‘Free Shane and Josh: An Urgent Plea for Compassion’ (available on DVD), and you can hold an event and invite your local media to cover it. The important thing is that you make yourself visible, make yourself heard, and make it crystal clear that enough is enough! This is our chance to show Iran the range of people and communities who are determined to see Josh and Shane free. We urge you to join us in what we pray will be the final push for their FREEDOM!
And last but certainly not least! Our Solidarity Fast for Shane and Josh continues and will continue until they are FREE! Show your solidarity with Shane, Josh, Sarah and their families and friends as they hunger strike for their rightful FREEDOM! You will be following in the footsteps of high profile peace activists and former political prisoners around the world participating! Read a sampling of their inspiring reflections here < FREEDOM FAST > and contribute your own!
We urge you to join us in what we pray will be the final push for their FREEDOM!
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your solidarity.
~ The Bauer, Fattal and Shourd Families and the Free the Hikers team
2 YEARS TOO LONG Weekend of Mobilization – July 29-31 2011
Jul 19th
TAKE ACTION on the weekend of July 29-31!
July 31st will be the second anniversary of Josh and Shane’s unjust detention and their “final hearing” in an Iranian court.
We need to call out LOUD and CLEAR for their far too long denied FREEDOM!!!
After two years of playing games with Josh and Shane’s lives, our families, and everyone that yearns to see them free, Iranian authorities have the opportunity to finally show the world that they are capable of compassion, putting humanitarianism above politics, and living up to promises they have made for nearly two years now.
At the same time, we cannot sit and wait passively for Iranian authorities to do the right thing. Iran needs to know that the world is watching what its judiciary does. We are calling on YOU to take action in your community, in whichever way feels right for you. You can put up posters in your community, you can light a candle, you can say a prayer, you can record a video or write a song, you can write an op-ed or post a blog, you can screen ‘Free Shane and Josh: An Urgent Plea for Compassion’ (available on DVD), and you can hold an event and invite your local media to cover it. The important thing is that you make yourself visible, make yourself heard, and make it crystal clear that enough is enough!
This is our chance to show Iran the range of people and communities who are determined to see Josh and Shane free. We urge you to join us in what we pray will be the final push for their FREEDOM!
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your solidarity. ~ The Bauer, Fattal and Shourd Families
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Please RSVP to our general facebook event listing for the weekend to get us started on identifying locations and organizers who are able to get something off the ground.
2. Please download, share, print and post the postcards in this blog post. Post them on facebook and twitter, use them as avatars, print them as postcards and share them with everyone you can!
3. As you mobilize, please do include this great initiative being coordinated by a group of friends of Sarah, Shane & Josh in your plans – both in terms of your individual campaign actions and in spreading the word to your networks. Shane and Josh need ALL the voices they can get calling for their FREEDOM!!!
CALL EVERYDAY! For more details (number, who to call, and what to say), please see http://twoyearsistoolong.wordpress.com/
Please help us ensure that we build the strongest collective voice that we can!
On behalf of Sarah, Shane & Josh and their families and friends, thanks so incredibly much for all of your past and ongoing efforts to FREE ALL THREE!!!
Farah for Free the Hikers
PRESS RELEASE: Josh Fattal Spends Second Birthday in Prison in Iran
Jun 4th
June 4, 2011
JOSH FATTAL SPENDS SECOND BIRTHDAY IN PRISON IN IRAN
American Hiker’s Grandmother, 85, Leads Family, Friends, and Former Colleagues and Students in Solidarity Hunger Strike
American environmental advocate Josh Fattal spent his birthday in an Iranian jail for a second consecutive year today as his extended family, friends, and former colleagues and students joined a solidarity hunger strike.
Josh, now 29, and his close friend Shane Bauer, 28, were arrested on July 31, 2009 while hiking in the unmarked border region of Iraqi Kurdistan and are being held in a 10-foot by 14-foot cell in Evin Prison, Tehran, with no access to their lawyer, Masoud Shafii, and almost no contact at all with their families. More than 40,000 people around the world have signed a petition for their immediate release.
“Never in my entire life would I have imagined such madness; that I would have a grandson held for no reason in an Iranian prison, and our entire family fasting in protest,” Fattal’s grandmother Muriel Felleman, 85, said.
“My husband turned 85 the day Josh was captured and we’ve not seen him for almost two years. The people in Iran who are preventing Josh and Shane from coming home are depriving their grandparents of the joy of spending time with them in our twilight years. They’re ruining all our lives and they need to stop,” she said.
Mrs. Felleman, frail from a recent surgery, led members of Josh’s family in Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and Washington State, including his 15-year-old cousin Brandon, in a day-long fast that is part of a rolling hunger strike launched on May 19 by Josh’s mother Laura and Shane’s mother Cindy Hickey.
The protest began after the Iranian judiciary failed without explanation to bring Josh and Shane to a planned trial hearing on May 11. The two men and Shane’s fiancée Sarah Shourd, who was released on humanitarian grounds last September, face fabricated charges of espionage.
Others joining the rolling hunger strike on Saturday included members of Aprovecho, a sustainable living community in Cottage Grove, Oregon, where Josh worked from 2005 to 2008, and former students across the United States and as far afield as Cambodia, China, Haiti, Rwanda, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Josh mentored 33 students as a Teaching Fellow on an International Honors Program “Health and Community” study tour to Switzerland, India, China and South Africa in 2009.
Rosemary Kirincic of the Aprovecho staff said, “Josh Fattal has been a crucial member of our community, contributing to groundbreaking work in environmental education by initiating the 100-mile diet and other programs. The world needs him to continue that good work. We at Aprovecho, as part of the environmental community, join Josh’s family today to decry the ongoing injustice that is Josh and Shane’s detention.”
Farah Mawani, a senior policy and research analyst at the Mental Health Commission of Canada, was a member of the traveling faculty on Josh’s 2009 IHP program. “For more than 22 months, Josh and Shane have suffered terrible isolation and injustice that threatens to leave lasting psychological scars. People all over the world have grown to know their selflessness and innocence through our hearts. The groundswell of desire to see Josh and Shane free is unstoppable and I appeal to Iran to show reason at last,” she said.
Shane and Josh at Aprovecho in happier times
Josh and Shane, a freelance photojournalist who was living in Syria with Sarah at the time of their vacation in Kurdistan, have been allowed to make only three brief telephone calls to their families since their arrest. In their most recent call, on May 22, the families learned that Josh and Shane had been on hunger strike for 17 days earlier this year after their jailers withheld family letters.
Josh’s elder brother, Alex, who joined the hunger strike at Aprovecho, said, “Of the 673 days that Josh and Shane have needlessly spent imprisoned in Iran, today is certainly one of the worst. Josh and Shane should be out celebrating life, enjoying their freedom in the company of family and friends. Instead, they are locked up and cut off from the world and the people who love them only because they hold American passports.”
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FASTING TO FREE SHANE AND JOSH!
May 23rd
Please share this poster far and wide! Both online and off-line! For those of you participating in our FREEDOM FAST, please send a photo of yourselves holding the poster in front of you to farah[at]freethehikers.org. THANK you!
“Their love got me through prison and our love will bring them home” ~ Sarah Shourd
May 21st
Dearest Family, Friends and Supporters,
I began my fast today in solidarity with Shane and Josh. It makes me think of all the selfless things they both did for me while I was in prison. Once, I mentioned to Josh that I had been wearing the same shirt for 11 months and it had holes in it. I was angry that the guards hadn’t given me a new shirt. The next day, Josh came out with his extra shirt and gave it to me. He had two shirts and he gave me the blue one, his favorite. Another time, for Valentine’s Day, Shane used the last two pieces of chocolate that he had been saving for months and made me “prison pie” out of crushed cookies, butter, dates and chocolate. It was delicious. These acts of love defended us against the constant pain of separation from our families and the extreme physical and mental restriction of being imprisoned.
Now that I’m free, all I want is to give back to Shane and Josh for what they did for me. Their love got me through prison and it’s our love that will bring them home.
All my gratitude for your support,
NB: Join Sarah, Shane, Josh, their families, friends and people around the world in fasting for their FREEDOM! http://bit.ly/SSJfast
Solidarity Fast for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal
May 19th
Show your solidarity with Shane, Josh and their families as they hunger strike for their rightful FREEDOM!
AUDIO: LAURA FATTAL CALLS FOR SUPPORT FOR SHANE AND JOSH
The mothers of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the two Americans imprisoned in Iran in almost complete isolation for more than 21 months, began a hunger strike in solidarity with their sons on May 19 2011, after Iranian authorities failed to bring them to court for a scheduled trial hearing. Without any explanation for this failure from Iranian authorities, the families of Shane and Josh fear that they may be in grave danger.
High Profile peace activists and former political prisoners from around the world are joining them in solidarity for a Rolling Hunger Strike. See the calendar below for details.
Please help them feel you with them in their fight for justice by fasting in solidarity with them. Please fast in whatever way you are able – from complete fasts to juice fasts to giving up significant food items.
Let us know you are joining us by RSVPing on our facebook event page!
THANK YOU!!!
