Dear Life

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

dear life 83

dear life,
i had heard the news of women being arrested during a calm protest in front of Iran's Revolution Court. I had read about the event beforehand, thinking to myself, shouldn't you as one of the women of this country, as someone who claims she is concerned with what goes on around her, be taking part? and i had immediately answered to myself, there will surely be arrests, and what use would be in all the hassle? and it the whole thing just went hide itself somewhere in my mind.
Then the news came, yes women were arrested. i didn't follow more. you know me, the less politics the better. (but is this really politics? or just social activities aiming at some development, some improvement?) Yesterday, i was invited to take part in the weekly meeting of a kind of news agency website. there i stood next to them, girls and boys, men and women, to sing a song of solidarity for a piece to show support, support for those women, for a campaign, for rights, for laws, to show that we care. i stood there and sang alongside them, i stood there and listened to their debate, and i thought to myself, would all this energy be worth something? and i immediately answered to myself, of course it would. if not, you should sit and just wait for death to come. you have no other way but to believe in your power to change, in your power as one in many, in your power joining that of others. it felt good to do something, even something as small as lending a voice to that song.
Late at night, at home, i read on friends' (reporters and photographers) weblogs of their missing arrested friends, and then a string of names, first names, some of which seem familiar but can be of any girl, and then on one blog, i see the pictures of some of those arrested, and i stare, i stare for a long while; those first names are not of any girl, they are of girls i once shared hours with, at office and on a trip, of some of my colleagues, some names i know when i read in full, some i don't, but faces i know, and it's as if i am shocked by a strong current of electricity. these are girls and women just like you, just in search of a better future, if not today; these are girls and women from as different social and ideological backgrounds as their numbers suggest, but these are women who believe in having to do something, who are still hopeful, hopeful that something can be done, that they are the ones who have to do something, that they can do something, whatever the price.
This i write as the smallest tribute to them, praying for their freedom, praying for the success of their movement and that of others who try to make the best of life, and most importantly praying to find in myself the courage they have found in them, and to find the way fitting me best to be of some positive influence in the world i live in.