Life and freedom are integral to the Iranian spirit. Even amid these dark days, I have hope that the conflict could liberate my people
W
hat is a writer’s responsibility? I feel that it has always been to give voice to those who have been silenced and to keep people alive through recreating them in our imagination, time and time again.
This is what I have in mind as the Iranian people live through their worst period of suffering in 47 years. Thousands are dead. Friends in Tehran hide in their homes, not able to go out for explosions and acid rain. Worst of all, they know that it is not just foreign bombs that threaten their lives. Their own government continues to patrol the streets with guns, beating people, arresting them, killing them.
Of course, that last part is nothing new. Just a month ago, the streets of Tehran were full of protesters marching against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, knowing they could be killed for doing so. And yet they came, and they came in droves. The sounds of the regime’s bullets were contrasted with the sounds of Iranians, singing and dancing, throwing away their mandatory veils and showing their hair. There was such joy to it. “Woman, life, freedom,” they chanted. If that is not emblematic of Iran’s spirit, then I don’t know what is.
