IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Section containing content by any of the hikers, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and/or Josh Fattal.
Lines of Hope: The Freedom of Dreams ~ Sarah Shourd
Sep 7th
Locked in a cell, your dreams are one of the only places you can go to feel free. There is a place in your subconscious where the countless restrictions placed on your body and spirit are temporarily lifted, where you can soar.
Wrapped in a scratchy wool blanket with a shirt wrapped around my eyes to block out the flourescent lights, my lonely cot at Evin Prison was a small comfort, a reminder that I had made it through yet another day. In our dreams, Shane, Josh and I could travel across the world, revisit the past and even venture into the future. I used to dream up adventures in the streets and markets of Tehran, I would talk to imaginary Iranian people and assure them of our innocence. I dreamed that I was finally allowed a cell mate; she was sad like me but we were together and she promised to teach me Farsi. I once dreamed that I was able to hide a kitten under my chador and sneak it into my cell, another time I received a surprise phone call from President Obama and yet another time my sweet mother came to visit me (which later came true) in a garden inside the prison. Those dreams were the only way that Shane, Josh and I could see the faces of our loved ones, hear their words and stay connected to the world we love.
Since I’ve been free, many of you have told me about your dreams about Shane, Josh and I over the last 2 years. Dreams are powerful connectors, so I’d like to ask you all to share yours here now, anonymously if you like, just like Shane, Josh and I did so many times during the brief time we had together in the prison’s open-air room. I’ll start with my own, one that I had while I was still detained:
I dreamed that I woke up in the middle of the night and the door of my cell was wide open. Somehow, I got a hold of some giant crayons. I walked down all the corridors, upstairs and downstairs. The bright lights were all on as usual but everyone was sleeping, even the guards, and there wasn’t a sound. Wearing a long white dress, I began to draw lines across the walls and cell doors. I drew a line across the whole prison, crossing it out and connecting all of us inside at the same time. The next day (in my dream), the investigators called me into the interrogation room and accused me of being the one who graffitied the walls. “How could I have done it when I was locked in my cell and I have no crayons?” I asked. “Anyway,” I said, “those marks are lines of hope. There are a lot of people trying to help us on the outside. It could have been any one of them that drew those lines. It’s art,” I told them, “it’s not a crime for them to give us hope.”
More than any other topic, Josh, Shane and I dreamed about the day we would all be freed. All 3 of us dreamed dozens of times about a big homecoming party, with everyone we had ever known in attendance. We called these “Temporary Freedom Dreams” and they helped us keep our hope alive, knowing that every day we were that much closer to the real thing.
Until Freedom, Sarah Shourd
VIDEO: Happy Birthday Shane: Shane Bauer in the eyes of his loved ones
Aug 3rd
In the days leading up to a decision in Iranian courts regarding innocent hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, this video, first shown at a birthday tribute to Shane, takes a closer look at Shane’s work as a journalist/photographer before his captivity in Iran.
Here some of Shane’s closest friends, colleagues and family members talk about why Shane first traveled to the Middle East, why he began intensively studying Arabic when he was 19 and why he became a journalist and photographer.
Filmed by Natalie Avital and edited by Bobby Field. Additional footage from David Martinez and Jacqueline Soohen.
New Things to Come: A Testimony to the Innocence of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer by Sarah Shourd
Feb 6th
Josh, Sarah and Shane in Iraqi Kurdistan
During the last four and a half months of heart-wrenching separation from Shane and Josh, my mind often goes back to memories of prison. I see the three of us coming out bleary-eyed into the courtyard after three months of complete isolation, laying out a ‘feast’ of whatever food we had been able to store up to mark a holiday, or huddled under a blanket on the cold, stone floor marveling at the sight of snow falling around us.
Sometimes I see Shane and Josh’s eyes in my mind flashing with fear or strained with anxiety; other times I see them brimming with tears or beaming with love. I remember the day of our arrest when we linked arms and begged the border police not to tear us apart. “Please,” we begged, “let us stay together.”
Those of you that have been following my writing and appearances in the media since my release have heard me say a lot about how much I admire Shane and Josh as professionals, peace activists and global citizens. You have heard me say again and again that Shane and Josh don’t deserve to be in prison one minute longer that I was and never deserved to be there in the first place. When we went hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan we didn’t know that we were near an unmarked border with Iran. We were living, working and traveling in the region in order to increase our knowledge of its diverse cultures, lend a hand through our humanitarian work and promote more understanding in our communities back home.
Our misfortune on that fateful day of July 31st, 2009, has resulted in a huge misunderstanding. This is the antithesis of what Shane, Josh and I came to the Middle East to do. Josh and Shane agree with me that Iran is a great country with an ancient culture to be admired and learned from. In the arc of history Persia, dating back to 4000 BC, has demonstrated incredible resilience and strength. Iranian people have a reason to be proud as the progenitors of one of the world’s oldest civilizations.
Shane, Josh and I never intended to go anywhere near Iran and we certainly meant no harm to its people or their leaders or by hiking near its northwestern border with Iraq. None of us had ever studied Persian history, politics or Farsi until we found ourselves in prison. Shane and I both decided to study Arabic as part of a commitment to engage constructively with Middle Eastern peoples, in hopes of countering the destructive toll taken by a decade of war led by our country. Josh shares these values; that’s why he traveled thousands of miles to visit us in Damascus, Syria.
Sometimes my mind finds its way back to even more distant memories. The first time I visited Josh in Oregon we went hiking in the woods behind the environmental school, Aprovecho, where he taught and ran internships. A simple hike turned out to be a gauntlet of trials. First, I sank knee-deep into the mud and Josh pulled me out. Then, I was terrified to find that a tick had bored its way into the skin on my arm. Josh calmly and patiently instructed me how to burn it off. I also remember Josh arriving wind-blown at our apartment in Damascus after six months of teaching and traveling. He was so eager to immerse himself in our new world, he even signed up for an Arabic class at Damascus University that he was going to start upon our return from Kurdistan!
Then there was the time in Yemen that I suddenly got ill. Shane went to hail a taxi while the hotel manager and some guests wrapped me in wool blankets to try to stop my shivering. A few minutes later we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and the cab couldn’t move an inch. Shane got out of the car and started yelling at the top of his lungs in Arabic, “Oh people. My dear fiancée is sick! Please my people, move to the side of the road so that we can pass and deliver her safely to the hospital! Thank you so much, oh people!” All of the cars moved to the side of the road. Even though my teeth were chattering and I was shaking with fever I couldn’t help smiling and thanking God for bringing this incredible man into my life!
Sarah talks to media at one year protest in San Francisco
I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want Shane and Josh to be free. I want it even more than I wanted my own freedom those 14 long months at Evin. I want to see Shane walk off into the sunset with his arms wrapped around his younger sisters. I want to see their fathers’ smiles light up the room and tears of joy stream down their mothers’ faces. I want Josh’s brother to get his heart back. I want their grandparents to rest assured that their children’s children are finally free.
The problems of our world today are much bigger than we are as individuals. Shane, Josh and I will never blame any one individual for what is happening to us or for the toll it has taken on our families. The political problems that divide our countries are structural and have been accumulating for decades. I believe that each and every one of us has the opportunity to make a small dent in the formidable odds working against global peace. I want to beseech Iran’s religious and political leaders to set Shane and Josh free so that they can help make a difference. Give them a chance to do the good work in the world that they were destined to do.
I remember the moment in the prison courtyard when Josh asked me if he could call me his ‘sister’ and the moment that Shane asked me to be his partner for life. Last week, the engagement ring that Shane wove for me in prison from a shirt thread finally snapped. At first I was upset and angry at the loss, but then I told myself it was a sign of new things to come.
CALL TO ACTION BY SARAH SHOURD: INTERNATIONAL BANNER WEEK #IBW
Oct 27th
SARAH SHOURD, RECENTLY FREED FROM EVIN PRISON IN IRAN, CALLS FOR:
INTERNATIONAL BANNER DAY FOR SHANE & JOSH—STILL IMPRISONED
Dear Friends & Supporters:
As you all know, I was freed on Sept 14th. Sadly, my fiancé Shane Bauer and my good friend Josh Fattal are still in Evin Prison. They are going to trial on Nov 6th. These are two innocent and courageous young men, held in Evin since July 31st, 2009, who did nothing wrong but hike near a border.
In the week leading up to the trial, Nov 1st thru Nov 6th, we call on our supporters worldwide to design, create and proudly display banners to FREE ALL THREE NOW. These banners, both large and small, will voice the message that they are innocent of all charges and will call for their immediate release.
We will be gathering photos of each and every banner in order to display them on the FREE THE HIKERS website and on Facebook. In addition, we ask that people post their images to Twitpic, using the hashtag: #IBW, which will identify it as being part of INTERNATIONAL BANNER WEEK on twitter. The idea is to create a groundswell of support that is visible from every corner of the real and virtual worlds.
A banner can be a bridge that can reach across social, cultural and geographical barriers. Let your banner reach past the walls of Evin Prison to Shane and Josh to bring them a message of hope and freedom.
THE CALL: Join us for International Banner Week in our plea for Iran to “FREE ALL THREE NOW”
THE WHAT:
- Design, create a banner of any size, with messages of support for Shane & Josh.
- Display, hang and/or drop your banners in the most visible place possible.
- Take a picture and document it.
- Email your photos to IBW@freethehikers.org.
THE WHEN: The first week in November, the week leading up to Shane and Josh’s unjust trial.
THE WHY: To let your message of support for these innocent young men be loud and clear and seen by the world.
THE MESSAGE:
- Shane and Josh are innocent.
- Free all three Now.
- The charges against them are outrageous.
We will be posting updates and tips here as the week goes on. Thank you again for all your support. I look forward to seeing all the creative ways you express your support for Shane and Josh.
Sincerely,
Sarah Shourd.
Here are some of our submissions so far:
LETTER FROM SARAH SHOURD TO SUPPORTERS
Oct 21st
Dear Friends & Supporters:
I came out of prison feeling frozen. I put up walls inside walls because if I stayed tender for 13 months in prison I would have exposed myself to too much pain; because there wasn’t enough beauty in a day to ward off the long, spiritual winter; because I needed them to stay sane.
More than anything I’m grateful to finally be sitting here writing about prison in the past tense.
Yet, for Shane and Josh, prison is still locked in the eternal present.
Sarah Shourd with her mother, Nora
I am one of the only people in the world that has their voices still fresh in mind. They were truly joyful to see me go free. Tightly grasping my hands in theirs they said “we believe in you, Sarah, no one is more ready and capable of jumping into the free world and fighting for us than you are.”
Free-life offers new challenges and very different obstacles than I faced in prison. I have reentered a world of fear and uncertainty…and also of great hope. Now I know first-hand what our families and all of you have been experiencing all along.
I learned patience and perseverance those long months and it’s those lessons more than anything that are serving me now.
The most important thing that I can offer you are the words of Shane and Josh. What they want to say to you, more than anything else, is “thank you.” Not even a message as basic as that has been able to fly from their lips, suspended by tender air currents and carried into your ears, for all these months.
“Thank you.”
Since the day I stepped off that plane into Muscat, Oman I’ve met with three presidents, numerous foreign ministers and ambassadors. Not one of them means any more or less to me than one of you.
I fervently believe that everyone’s efforts led to my freedom, everyone’s belief that the world contains as much goodness, and as much justice, as we create and put into motion. Not an ounce more or an ounce less.
I want this freedom, this justice for Shane and Josh, with every morsel of my being. Every breath I take, every time I open my eyes in the morning and every time I close them at night, I see them. I know them and I love them.
I want to ask you to please, look to the positive, feel the power and the strength of what you’ve done. Help us give one, last, huge push!!!
Sarah Shourd & Friends Reunite
I’ve asked the world to redouble its efforts. But what does that mean? It means do what you do best, whatever it may be. Do what you do best for Shane and Josh. We need funds for legal expenses, translation and travel. We need people to buy FREE THE HIKERS t-shirts and jewelry. We need prayers and we need action. We need more people to visit the website and sign the new petition. Make a “Free All Three” banner and hang it up in the most visible spot you can find. We need you to mobilize and be ready for the next step when it comes.
We have all been changed and continue to be changed by this experience. Thanks to all the love and support I’ve felt in the last month I’m slowing thawing out, but sometimes it feels like a glacier in there, waiting for thousands of years for just enough sun. When Josh and Shane get out they will help me figure it out. No one knows me as well as they do. When the three of us are together and free, I know we will heal.
Prison is not heaven or hell. Nothing in life made us ready for this experience, but Shane and Josh are coping. They are as strong as they need to be. They will walk out unbroken.
One of my students once said to me, “A part of me is yours forever” because I was there to help him get through a difficult time in his life. I want to say the same to all of you on behalf of myself, Shane and Josh, “A part of us is yours, forever.”
“Thank you.”
When Josh and Shane are free we will all be able to exhale collectively, pause and then ask, “Who’s next?” There are millions more lined up, waiting to get free. “What’s next?” There are countless changes that devoted, committed people like ourselves can band together and fight for. I’m looking forward to the day. I’m hoping that Shane and Josh will soon be standing with us, asking these questions and finding answers.
Sarah Shourd
SPECIAL SCREENING OF SHANE BAUER’S FILM ABOUT DARFUR
Oct 19th
Special Screening of Songs to Enemies and Deserts
Free the Hikers, in conjunction with MN Film Arts, are hosting a special screening of this documentary created by Shane Bauer and David Martinez. Songs to Enemies and Deserts is a work of art created by Shane and David about the people of Darfur and their pursuit of a peaceful community. Please join us!!
- DATE: October 23, 2010
- TIME: 1:30 PM (35 minutes in length)
- PLACE: St Anthony Main
- ADDRESS: 115 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414
- COST: $12 ($8 Students)
- FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE
- DOWNLOAD PDF FLYER
- EVENT PAGE ON MAIN FREE THE HIKERS SITE
This documentary is about an area of Sudan that is controlled by two factions of armed rebels. It is about the daily lives of the farmers and herders who live there as they interact with the rebels who try and hold the forces of the Janjaweed and the Sudanese army at bay.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID & SHANE FOR CURRENT TV ABOUT THE FILM:
This is a short news piece that Current TV did about Songs to Enemies and Deserts. Shane is on the viewer’s right and his co-director, David Martinez is on the left.
SHANE BAUER ON MAKING THE FILM, REPUBLISHED FROM HIS WEBSITE:
Songs to Enemies and Deserts:
A Film About The Rebels Of Darfur
From the mountains of Jebel Marra in central Darfur a ragged group of rebels swept down onto Sudanese military bases in 2003, routing the government’s soldiers and making off with rifles, artillery, and vehicles. The Sudan Liberation Army had scored its first victory, and no one could predict what would follow. Instead of taking on the rebels directly, the Khartoum government sent bombers and horse mounted militias to murder and terrorize Darfuri civilians. The ensuing horrors were documented by the international news media and the world’s outcry was part of the reason that the attacks subsided, at least temporarily. With the government murdering the civilian population to quell the rebellion, the rebels became the civilians’ only protection force.
Who are these men and why did they begin fighting in the first place, and what part do they play in the ongoing situation that is Darfur? Their demands are widely supported by the civilian population: they want roads and schools, clean water, health care, and representation in their country’s despotic government, controlled by an elite that has ruled from the country’s northern region since the Sudanese gained independence from the British in 1956.
David Martinez and I wanted to understand these rebels’ world, their motivations, their histories, who they were and why they fought. We felt that in all of the attention that Darfur was getting, the Darfuri people themselves were often portrayed as abject victims, with hands outstretched, needing the west to come to their rescue. And yet here were Darfuris who had risen up against a murderous and racist regime, people who were very far from being helpless Africans.
In August 2007 we went and found them in North Darfur, lived with them for five weeks, and shot a movie about them.
ABOUT THE FILM:
Songs To Enemies And Deserts, (35 minutes), NTSC, Color, Filmed on digital video. In Arabic, Zaghawa, and English with English subtitles. Directed by David Martinez and Shane Bauer, photographed by David Martinez, edited by David Martinez, Shane Bauer, and Iona Sidi. Sound mixed by Luis Guerra, Terremoto Studios, New Mexico.
SCENE FROM THE FILM:
Our heartfelt thanks to MN Film Arts for their assistance & to all supporters of Free The Hikers!
Sarah was released September 14, 2010. Shane and Josh remain in detention.
Please show your support for our efforts to release them to their families.
ALL proceeds go to FREE THE HIKERS!
VIDEO: SARAH SHOURD ON DEMOCRACY NOW!
Sep 29th
REPUBLISHED FROM DEMOCRACY NOW:
Freed American Hiker Sarah Shourd Reflects on 14 Months in Iranian Prison and Calls on Iran to Release Her Two Friends
In July of 2009, Sarah Shourd and her now-fiancé Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal were detained and jailed in Iran after being arrested near the Iran-Iraq border while they were on a hiking trip. Earlier this month, Shourd was released on “humanitarian grounds” on $500,000 bail, but Iran is continuing to hold Bauer and Fattal.
Sarah Shourd joins us today to discuss her time in solitary confinement, her political activism, how they were detained, her engagement to Bauer, and why she opposes a US attack on Iran. “I would really like to thank people and ask them to not slow down, to not wait—put my freedom on pause and wait with me, so that we can all enjoy it together once Shane and Josh are with us,” Shourd said. [includes rush transcript]
SARAH SHOURD APPEARS ON OPRAH TODAY
Sep 23rd
In her continuing efforts to help free her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and friend, Josh Fattal, Sarah has agreed to appear on Oprah today. Please watch her today on ABC!
PREVIEW OF SARAH SHOURD’S INTERVIEW ON OPRAH
An Oprah Show Exclusive: Freed Hiker Sarah Shourd’s First National Television Interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show Thursday, September 23.
CHICAGO, IL — In her first national television interview, freed hiker Sarah Shourd is speaking out about being held captive as a prisoner in Iran for 410 days, largely in solitary confinement, her pleas to end the detention of her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal and the events that made her recent release possible in an Oprah Show exclusive Thursday, September 23, 2010. Joined in-studio by her mother, Nora Shourd, Cindy Hickey (Shane’s mother) and Laura Fattal (Josh’s mother), the former prisoner reveals how she’s coping under the strain of being at the center of an intense international story and talks about the continued efforts to reunite her fellow hikers with their families.
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
#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
