Another friend of mine in Iran, a poet whose words have been posted here many times just wrote this after hearing of Fayah's death.

For Fayah

a tragedy
another martyr
a senseless killing
the death of a nation

another martyr
adds her soul's water
to the well of souls
whose water condemns the damned

a green well could become red
were we to fill it with tears or with blood
but we have filled it with souls
to draw upon again and again

a well of souls
to make us thirst for freedom
to water the seeds planted by our ancestors
another martyr to fill a well of souls

when we are free
from the abuse and oppression
we will remember the souls
who have filled the well

when we are free
and lift ourselves from oppression
we will forget those
who will burn in hell

i am so very sorry for your loss, Gwyndyn, and all the losses and heart breakings suffered by this young woman's family. i pray there will be justice and peace for all of us soon

I heartily wish I didn't have to report this. I just found out that Fayah was one of the women who led the protests on July 30th at Neda Agha Soltan's gravesite.

She was beaten severely by several Basij militiamen with batons, and struck repeatedly on the head.

Her friends carried her away from the cemetary to a friend's house. She died on August 2nd, having never regained consciousness.

Fayah Azadi was 23 years old, a student at Tehran University, studying art. She was a talented painter, and a staunch supporter of democracy and women's rights.

Nothing I can say can do justice to her courage and dedication and resolve, so I am reposting her last email to me. Her words are the best epitaph I can imagine.

Please note, if you are one of the people who abhors martyrdom and the very concept of dying for a cause, I respect your opinion but this is not the place to state it. I am deeply distraught right now, and I fear I would not give your opinions the thoughtful response that they deserve. Thank you.

"I love life. I love to laugh and be with my friends. There are so many books I want to read, movies I want to see, people I want to meet. I want to marry, to be a good wife and mother. I want to grow old with the people I love, to feel the sun on my face, to see the ocean, to travel.

My country is in a terrible state. People have no jobs. There is no money. People have no freedom. Women must hide themselves from the world, and we have no choices.

Our people--we are not terrorists. We hate terrorists. And that is what our government has become. They kill our people for no reason. They torture us in their prisons because we want freedom. They make our country look evil, they make our religion look evil.

We are fighting for our freedom, for our religion, for our country. If we do nothing while injustice abounds, we become unjust. We turn into the ones we hate.

I have to fight. I have to go back on the streets. I will make them kill me. I will join Neda, with my friends, and then maybe the world will hear us.

I never thought I would become a martyr, but it is needed. The more of us they kill, the smaller they become, the more strength the people will have. Maybe my death will mean nothing, but maybe it will buy my country freedom.

I am very sad that I will never be a mother, that I will never do the things I love, but I would rather die than do nothing and know that I am to blame for the tortures, the murder, the hatred.

Please tell the world how much we love life. That we are not terrorists. We just want to be free."

Still no word from Fayah or her group. Ali was arrested, and no one knows where he is being held. No word from Rashid.

In my continued attempts to try and put a face and a voice to the reformers, I'm going to share some emails from an Iranian poet/reformer, who I won't identify. It's very long, but very important. Please, please take the time to read.

In various email conversations with others in Iran, some questions have come up. Here are the questions and their answers:
( Read more... )

Quiet changes in the government administration:

While most of political group and parties are busy with post-election protests and big number of protesters , political activists and journalists getting arrested actually in the background there are some extensive changes in managers , security and military and police generals across the country.
Some parliament representatives yesterday said that just a week after dismissing Ejeiee from Ministry of Information, the 9th government president also dismissed two of senior and experienced managers of this ministry.These two were dismissed after being in that ministry for almost 20 years.There are more changes in Army generals and also police and militia high level and senior generals.

University students sentenced:

Court order communication for Zanjan University students

Based on this order , Bahram Vahedi, Sourena Hashemi, Arash Rayeji , Payam Shakiba and Mohammad Hasan Joneidi each has been sentenced to one year prison ,the accusations are public minds Anxiety and Stimulation of illegal gathering intended to country security disrupt.

A news list of arrested people, some confirmed and others with no news of their situation has been published to be sent to human right organizations and also for public information.

Number 8 on this list is my friend Ali.
8- Ali Amorlahi, 20 year old, computer software student arrested Thursday Mordad 8th at Vanak, unknown captivity place

I'm only printing his name since it has appeared everywhere on the internet already. Now, silence won't help him.

Wherever you are, Ali, you are in our thoughts and prayers. You will not be forgotten.

Still no news of Fayah and Rashid.

No news yet of the protests yesterday and today. I'll update when I have news.

Thank you, so very much, to everyone who is helping Fayah's words to be heard. I have passed along all of the messages telling of the support and love, and she and her friends are inspired and gratified by your caring.

She anticipates being out of contact starting later today, as the government is preparing to shut down phone service, internet service, and electricity to try to keep a lid on tomorrow's memorial for the June 20 martyrs.

Fayah and her friends and the hundreds of thousands of others fighting for their freedom need to be heard. If you have a facebook or twitter account, please repost her letter. Send it to the news networks. Get the word out. There is no need to credit me or to link to this blog, just copy and paste her words anywhere you can think of. The enemy of freedom is silence.

If you want to help the people in Iran, please go to this website and donate if you can, or use your extra bandwidth to set up proxy servers and tor bridges. It is because of the efforts of austinheap and others that Fayah and her friends can tell their stories. You truly can make a difference.

http://blog.austinheap.com/

Please keep the people of Iran in your thoughts and prayers, especially tomorrow.

Fayah.

Rashid.

Ali.

Remember them.

Through all of this work with Iranian protesters, I have come into contact and become friends with three people there.

For their safety, I can't give you any details of who they are, but I'll give you their names, since they're very common there.

Rashid.

Fayah.

Ali.

Two of them have become very influential on a grass roots level, partially because they are in contact with so many people internationally, and have access to better information than most.

Through many, many email conversations, I have grown to love and admire and deeply respect these people, these friends.

Two of them are planning to deliberately seek martyrdom on Thursday. Here's what Fayah wrote to me:

"I love life. I love to laugh and be with my friends. There are so many books I want to read, movies I want to see, people I want to meet. I want to marry, to be a good wife and mother. I want to grow old with the people I love, to feel the sun on my face, to see the ocean, to travel.

My country is in a terrible state. People have no jobs. There is no money. People have no freedom. Women must hide themselves from the world, and we have no choices.

Our people--we are not terrorists. We hate terrorists. And that is what our government has become. They kill our people for no reason. They torture us in their prisons because we want freedom. They make our country look evil, they make our religion look evil.

We are fighting for our freedom, for our religion, for our country. If we do nothing while injustice abounds, we become unjust. We turn into the ones we hate.

I have to fight. I have to go back on the streets. I will make them kill me. I will join Neda, with my friends, and then maybe the world will hear us.

I never thought I would become a martyr, but it is needed. The more of us they kill, the smaller they become, the more strength the people will have. Maybe my death will mean nothing, but maybe it will buy my country freedom.

I am very sad that I will never be a mother, that I will never do the things I love, but I would rather die than do nothing and know that I am to blame for the tortures, the murder, the hatred.

Please tell the world how much we love life. That we are not terrorists. We just want to be free."

[Note: I have corrected spelling, removed identifying details, and cleaned up the word order a bit...English is her fourth language.]

Please, my friends, remember these names:

Rashid

Fayah

Ali

Please keep them in your thoughts and your prayers.

Gods bless the people of Iran.


If any of you want to reprint Fayah's letter, or disseminate it in any way, please do so. We are her voice, and it needs to be heard.