IMAGES OF EVENTS
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!
SARAH SHOURD MAKES FIRST PUBLIC STATEMENT ON RETURN TO US
Sep 19th
American hiker Sarah Shourd made the following remarks at a news conference in New York today following her return to the United States. Sarah, 32, was released from detention in Iran after 410 days in solitary confinement on September 14. Her fiancé Shane Bauer and their close friend Josh Fattal, both 28, remain held in Evin Prison, Tehran. To learn more about Sarah, Shane and Josh, please visit freethehikers.org.
REMARKS BY SARAH SHOURD—SEPTEMBER 19, 2010
Welcome everyone and thank you for being here today. I want to begin by again expressing my sincere thanks to the government and religious leaders of Iran. My gratitude goes in particular to Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for my compassionate release from detention.
It is my deepest hope that the world will not let this humanitarian gesture by the Iranian government and judicial branch go unrecognized. I believe this decision is a step in the right direction for all of us and, above all, for my fiancé Shane and my dear friend Josh.
Shourd said in a press conference in New York that she and her companions "committed no crime"
I will forever be grateful to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman for his untiring commitment to our case and the warmth of his people’s welcome. When I stepped out of the plane into that beautiful country the caress of the sweet, fragrant breeze was a promise—a promise Shane and Josh’s suffering too will end.
I also want to thank the American people and our government, and people and governments all around the world who have advocated for our release and supported our families for more than 13 months. Lastly, I want to extend my gratitude to our lawyer Masoud Shafii for his tireless work on our behalf and to my friend Ambassador Leu of Switzerland for her support and continued engagement.
Getting on the plane in Tehran was one of the most memorable and important moments of my life. But this is not the time to celebrate. My disappointment at not sharing that moment with Shane and Josh was crushing. And I stand before you today only one third free. That was the last thing that Josh said to me before I walked through the prison doors. Josh and Shane felt one third free at that moment and so did I.
The only thing that enabled me to cross the gulf from prison to freedom alone was the knowledge that Shane and Josh wanted with all their hearts for my suffering to end. They showed nothing but joy at my release and that more than anything is testimony to the selflessness and beauty of their spirits.
I had many concerns about my health while I was in prison. Thankfully, doctors in Oman have reassured me that I am physically well. As we say in Arabic, al-Hamdilullah, Praise be to God.
Shane and Josh do not deserve to be in prison one day longer than I was. We committed no crime and we are not spies. We in no way intended any harm to the Iranian government or its people and believe a huge misunderstanding led to our arrest and prolonged detention.
Shane, Josh and I had no knowledge of our proximity to the Iran-Iraq border when we went hiking behind the Ahmed Awa waterfall, a popular tourist site frequented by local families in Iraqi Kurdistan. If we were indeed near the Iraq-Iran border, that border was entirely unmarked and indistinguishable.
Though my friends and I never intended or chose to go to Iran, the tragedy of our imprisonment has forever marked our destinies. I never in my worst nightmare imagined that I would be a prisoner. I never saw it coming, and I never knew that my family would have to suffer like this.
I want to be clear that I do not in any way blame the Iranian people for the pain our families and friends are suffering. I found Iranians to be a diverse, generous people defined by their fervent worship of God and noble Islamic values. Like all of us, they love their families and they want to live in peace.
At the time of our arrest, Shane and I were working in the Middle East and living in Damascus, Syria. Shane is a courageous and talented international journalist and I taught English to Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, as well as Syrian nationals. Josh is an environmental teacher who arrived in Syria as our guest less than a week before our arrest after leading a study abroad program about global heath challenges.
My hope is that by learning who we are and how we came to be in this diverse and fascinating region of the world directly from my lips, it will help clear up any doubts and end Shane and Josh’s detention. I intend to talk about these issues more in the days and weeks ahead because it is time to clear up the misunderstanding that led to our imprisonment.
I also firmly believe that now is the time to make the world a little safer for everyone through peace and dialogue. I believe that our tragedy is an opportunity for Americans and Iranians to realize that an improved relationship would be in the best interest of all people. My hope is that, in our own, small way, Shane, Josh and I as individuals can help begin to build a bridge between our two disparate countries and cultures.
I walked out of prison with my spirit bruised but unbroken and I am more determined than ever that Shane and Josh—God Willing, Inshallah—will soon walk out the same way. My life begins again the day I go to pick them up, the day when all three of us can be reunited with our families with the walls of prison far behind us.
My work is cut out for me and I need all the help I can get. I ask everyone who cares about Shane and Josh’s freedom to please stand behind us and our families so that we can make this final push for their freedom together. I also ask the governments and people of the world to please help in the process of cooperation and bridge-building at this crucial time.
Please help us free Shane and Josh. Please help us create an atmosphere of goodwill in the world. Thank you.
CLICK HERE FOR PDF VERSION OF SARAH SHOURD’S STATEMENT
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:
PHOTOS FROM SOME #1YR @FREETHEHIKERS WEEKEND OF ACTION EVENTS
Aug 1st
As the WEEKEND OF ACTION continues, we bring you some images from events so far:
FOR EVENTS TOMORROW, PLEASE VISIT UPCOMING EVENTS!
SISTER OF IMPRISONED HIKER SHANE BAUER HOLDS VIGIL IN BOULDER, CO
Aug 1st
REPUBLISHED FROM COLORADO DAILY:
Hikers have been detained in Iran for one year
By Joe Rubino, Camera Staff Writer
At 1:33 p.m. Saturday, 24-year-old Boulder resident Shannon Bauer stood in front of the Boulder County Courthouse, amid Pearl Street Mall shoppers and tourists on a hot summer day.
At that very minute, exactly one year ago, Bauer and her family first received word that her older brother, Shane Bauer, his girlfriend, Sarah Shourd, and their friend, Josh Fattal, had been captured by the Iranian government while hiking along an unmarked stretch of the Iraq-Iran border. The three remain captives in Iran to this day.
The Boulder “Free the Hikers” vigil, held Saturday afternoon on the Pearl Street Mall, was one of more than 15 events worldwide—some as far away as New Delhi, India—commemorating what organizers call one year of unjust detention for the three American citizens.
Bauer, who was helped by a rotating group of 10 to 15 friends and volunteers Saturday, held the vigil to continue spreading awareness of her brother’s plight and to apply pressure to both the Iranian and United States governments to release her brother, Stroud and Fattal.
“I have a goal of at least one person finding out about it and going on the Web site and showing how much they care,” Bauer said of Saturday’s vigil. “The ultimate goal every day is that they come home.”
A table set up for the vigil featured photos of the three captives. Volunteers sold T-shirts and buttons and accepted donations to support the “Free the Hikers” cause. The main goal, however, was to gather signatures on a petition asking the Iranian government to release the hikers. More than 60 signatures had been collected by 2 p.m. Saturday
“I had a couple of people telling me signing something wasn’t going to do anything,” said Sarah Kubley, a neighbor and friend of Bauer’s who helped out Saturday. “That’s just a good excuse to do nothing.”
Bauer and several others read prepared speeches at the vigil. Barbara Petersen, of Littleton, studied abroad with Fattal in South Africa in 2009. She was too emotional to finish her speech, so her father, Craig, read most of it.
Bauer hasn’t spoken to her brother since his arrest. She found out about his engagement to Shourd after their mother briefly visited him in his Tehran prison cell in March.
“Everything kind of changed,” said Bauer’s partner, Natalie Seuske. “We can’t leave cell phone reception because we’re always waiting for that call. Shannon has had health issues related to the stress.”
Despite the emotional distress it has caused her, Bauer takes solace in the community response.
“This situation generally is not something many people go through,” she said. “So to have this type of support is one of the main things getting us through this. People who don’t even know them want to see them come home.”
Melissa Parker, a resident of Union, Ky., signed the “Free the Hikers” petition. She was vacationing in Boulder with her family.
“It’s just really sad to think there are people over there that our government can’t help release,” she said. “We just keep them in our prayers.”
CHECKOUT MORE PHOTOS FROM THE BOULDER EVENT:
VANCOUVER WEEKEND OF ACTION BENEFIT TO @FREETHEHIKERS
Aug 1st
The Free the Hikers Benefit Concert in Vancouver was a success last night. Jackie, Kate and I invited over 200 people by evite and were a little worried that folks would not be able to make it since this is a long weekend in Canada and most people we know had plans to get out of town. It worked out perfectly though and Jackie’s back yard was filled with families. Jackie had her garden decorated with banners, flags and lanterns. People set up blankets on the lawn and relaxed in the warm summer evening. For two hours, Kate shared the kid’s songs she has written over the past two months. We sang and the kids danced and we thought about Josh, Shane and Sarah writing songs and singing them in Evin. We made lemonade and served a mountain of “prison pie” cookies baked by Tara, Mum, Kate, Jackie and me.
The crowd was a real mix of people and many were hearing about Josh, Shane and Sarah for the first time. Lots of the kids asked why Josh, Sarah and Shane were in jail. It was actually a hard question to answer in terms the 7 year old set could understand. However, they got the message that the detention of the hikers is a serious injustice and were suitably outraged.
It was a busy night. We had an information booth with pictures of the Hikers and the their story, we wrote collective letters to Larijani and Ahmadinejad , we handed out 80 white ribbons with the FTH website address, we made a card for Josh, Shane and Sarah, we created a photo montage of everyone holding messages the kids had written to Iran and the Hikers, we got a bunch more signatures for the petition, we gave everyone stacks of flyers to give to their friends, we raised $820 dollars (Canadian funds) by donations, we sold some of Sarah Taylor’s lovely Free the Hikers necklaces, we sang, the kids danced long into the night, we ate the cookies, and we drank the lemonade.
Our hearts were with Josh, Shane and Sarah. Please let them come home soon.
In solidarity,
Rachel, Jackie, & Kate
CHECKOUT ALL THE PICTURES AT PICASA:
VIDEO: LAST NIGHT IN SYRIA—BY @SAFEWORLD4WOMEN
Jun 18th
This film is the third in a series of films called “The Real Hikers,” by Safe Word Media. Made from footage taken at the wedding of two of Sarah & Shane’s close friends in Syria, it is the most personal & touching thus far in the series. Included here is the film, along with the statement made by the filmmakers about the process of creating this piece.
REPUBLISHED FROM A SAFE WORLD FOR WOMEN:
Last Night in Syria is the third film we have made in support of the Free The Hikers Campaign and by far the most personal.
It contains unseen footage of Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer, at the wedding of a friend Emily, in Damascus, Syria—5 days before they were detained by Iranian authorities while hiking near the border of Iraqi Kurdistan & Iran.
LAST NIGHT IN SYRIA
MAKING THE FILM
We were first told of the existence of the wedding film by Shon Meckfessel (AKA ‘the fourth hiker‘), who was also at the wedding. He knew a film had been made and so he approached Emily and asked if we could see it. Emily and Basel’s response was instant. Anything they could do to help…
When we got the film footage, we watched it over and over again. At first, searching for clips of Sarah, Shane and Josh. But the more we did this, the more we were drawn into the beauty and energy of the event itself…
Emily & Basel at their Wedding
Originally, the intention was simply to show footage of Sarah, Shane and Josh, but the fairy-tale beauty left us speechless. The footage arrived almost to the day of the first anniversary of our wedding. A wedding with a fairy-tale feel about it as well.
Interviewing the Bride & Groom
It was when Emily offered to do an interview with us, to talk about Sarah, Shane and Josh, that the film started to take on its own life.
Sarah & Emily Smile as the Groom Dances in the Background
Our interview with Emily and Basel took place over skype and lasted some two hours, during which the impact of the separation of the newly-weds was self-evident by the fact that Basel was talking from an internet cafe in Syria, and Emily from her home in England.
Sarah, Emily & Basel (Shane's standing in the far left corner in the back.)
Although you do not hear Basel’s voice on the film, the memory of his beautiful Arabic dialogue is ingrained in the making of it.
When we listened back to the recording, the sequence of Emily talking at the end of the skype call became the whole theme of the film.
Contrasts
In her words and her silences, you can feel the many emotions. It was this upon which the film was built.
Shane & Sarah at the Wedding
We realised that the film was about contrasts. Contrasts of this happy wedding celebration, of Sarah, Shane and Josh’s mothers’ visit to Tehran a few days before and the images of the three prisoners.
As Emily says at the beginning of the film, “it feels unreal… like a film.”
And this is how the film made itself, with a slightly unreal dreamlike quality.
Speechless
We must have watched it a hundred times now. And each time we do, it touches us the same way and leaves us speechless.
Shane & Sarah Dancing at the Wedding
Speechless because of the reality of the situation. Speechless that the couple that we see dancing together, so much in love, are stuck inside the cold walls of a prison in Iran, with no end in sight for their release.
~Christine Crowstaff (and Andrew Sampson)
For more information about the work done by A SAFE WORLD FOR WOMEN, as well as other films from this series, please visit their site.
VANCOUVER VIGIL VIGNETTE
Apr 15th
More dispatches have been coming in from Hope Vigil organizers from around the world. The following is an email we received from Jackie, one of the organizers of the VANCOUVER 250 DAYS HOPE VIGIL:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Jackie
Date: Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Subject: Photos from Vancouver Hope Vigil
To: Alex, Farah
Here are some photos from our day yesterday. I will send a few with this email and the rest in another.
Signing the petition.
I would call it a success! There were many people on the trail when we were doing our walk and we stopped and talked to at least 40 of them and got many new signatures for the petition. If they didn’t sign right away, they at least took away with them the hand out with the website on it and promised to sign there after they had read more about it. Some people had heard about what is happening on the news, others knew nothing about it but everyone was very supportive and interested and I am sure will go out and spread the word themselves.
We raised $250 from our raffle. I will donate that through the website this afternoon.
We wrote postcards to the hikers and also letters to Ahmadinejad.
And then we just ate some really good food including Rachel’s vegan, fair-trade chocolate cake!
Alex, my mom won the “free the hikers” necklace in the raffle and she would like to give it to your mom.
Hope the day went well for you both. I look forward to reading about and seeing pictures of what everybody did on the website.
VANCOUVER 250 DAYS HOPE VIGIL
NOTE, HOPE & PICTURE FROM ZWELETEMBA, SOUTH AFRICA
Apr 15th
250 DAYS HOPE VIGIL: Zweletemba, South Africa—Community that Josh was part of at this time last year came together to send love & light to Sarah, Shane & Josh.
Here is a pic from the Zweletemba vigil…with more to come soon. I’ve encouraged Mira to write a blog post about it—and also asked her to encourage others from their group to write from their perspectives. Their internet connectivity is limited there so we shall see… I know that vigil has also impacted on our (IHP) group that was there a year ago—hopefully some of them can write something too.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: MIra
Date: Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 9:02 AM
Subject: Zweletemba Hope Vigil
To: FarahHi Farah,
Picture from the Zweletemba, South Africa Hope Vigil
This is MIra, this year’s heath and community fellow. I also am a good friend of Josh’s, as we were students together in the International Honors Program 8 years ago.
We had a really nice vigil this past weekend in Zelethemba. I am attaching here one photo in the hopes you could upload it to the webiste. I hope to pass on more, but wanted to get you something to begin with. I have already put it on Facebook.
Thanks for everything you are doing!
I could feel everyone’s energy this Sunday and have a good feeling that this will be over soon.
