It is exactly four years since I escaped from Iran

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It is exactly four years since I escaped from Iran
by Multiple Personality Disorder
21-Mar-2012
 

It is exactly four years since I escaped from Iran

I took this picture at the time of my escape and on the ground zero border, meaning the last point in the Iranian territory.

My feeling was that there was no going back.  I thought to myself, you better take a souvenir picture that I, myself, and also Iran, be in it.

I was abandoning everything that I had accumulated in my thirty years of living in that land, onward towards a future with no guarantees, a trip to a land that I had no notion of, just in the hopes of the feel of freedom...

I don’t know whether I should say fortunately or unfortunately, but this notionless land as my second country, not only gave me the blessings of freedom, but also respect, self-confidence, security, and...  in return for those, it did not ask me for anything; meaning, it gave me everything that was taken away from me in my motherland just to keep the cruel Islamic system in power.

The calm that exists in this bountiful land has been so much that I, even now, regret less having lost my life, health and youth in the dungeons of the Caliphate Mr. Khamenei.

I am always grateful to this land and her kindness, but I am sad more than happy.  My motherland, despite having the inherent power to create heaven on earth, had done something that made me escape from her.

Anyone who has felt freedom outside the closed environment of Iran knows that freedom is not a frightening phenomenon that would be impossible in Iran.

Of all the seventy-million inhabitants of my motherland, how many people have had the chance to feel this freedom?

Who knows?


Source: Translation from Farsi to English from Ahmad Batebi's website.

//ahmadbatebi.com/weblog/193-2012-03-21-21-30...

امروز دقیقاً چهار سال است که از ایران فرار کرده ام

نوشته شده توسط احمد باطبی

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more from Multiple Personality Disorder
 
yolanda

............

by yolanda on

Hi MPD,

    Thank you for translating Batebi's poem! He is a very special person. It is so sad that he had suffered so much in Iran. IRI's torturer pushed his head into human wastes.........I can never forget his interview on "60 minutes":

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfFrnQR2TxU&feature=relmfu

    I am so glad that he escaped and now he works tirelessly to raise the awareness of political prisoners' plight in Iran! He is also a very patriotic Iranian......

//www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/middleeast/13dissident.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Mr. Batebi speaks of working from afar for peaceful change in Iran. He recoils when asked about the possibility of American military action against Iran, saying that if the United States attacked, “I might go back and fight for my country myself.”

*****************

My favorite verse is his last verse:

Of all the seventy-million inhabitants of my motherland, how many people have had the chance to feel this freedom?

Thank you for picking this poem!


Azadeh Azad

MPD

by Azadeh Azad on

Thank you for translating Ahmad batebi's honest and moving words. I admire him and consider him to be one of the most courageous and noble sons of our motherland.

This translation will allow non-Iranians to know more about this modest and grateful ex-political prisoner who endured tortures in the Islamic Republic's dungeons.

Thanks again,

Azadeh


MM

Thanks, MPD

by MM on

A sad story, but many more like it out of Iran.


maziar 58

..

by maziar 58 on

salute to a free man at last  Mr Batebi.

But PLEASE  BE aware of Posting any thing on the persian face book!!

Deevar moosh dareh

Moosham goosh dareh.

Maziar


amirparvizforsecularmonarchy

Ahmad we need to learn from the past. CLUELESSNESS at this stage

by amirparvizforsecularmonarchy on

is painful and sad to see.

Ahmad You say "the blessings of freedom, but also respect, self-confidence, security," these ALL used to exist in Iran with the late shah, it was and is every iranians birth right.  It is ONLY the USA govt/politicians that stole it from all of us and in the process of achieving this despicable goal, disingenuously presented the late shah as a dictator, a megalomaniac and a crook, before murdering him.  The USA also supported Khomeini who they presented as a ghandi like figure.  Ahmad wake up please, you must know that The USA has absolutely no choice but to allow you to enjoy freedom, because it does not belong to the United states to Ration out in the first place.  America (and Iran pre 1979) is a land based on the rule of law.  That means the government can not give freeedom to some and steal it from others within its borders.  The Law prevents this from happening.  Freedom is something you should never take for granted, like love and peace, but ideals like these are not something to be grateful for, they are qualities we are all entitled to as a birth right.  That the United states and the IRI stole your freedom is something to be upset about.  You can blame the people of Iran for losing their freedom as much as you can blame the people of the USA for supporting their government in starting wars around 180 times in just 250 year of history.  While the people are ultimately responsible/they are not to blame or at fault. Look up the words manipulation, deceit and betrayal.  Until you understand these words and how they apply to iran.  If you were to become familiar with reality, that the people of the world (not just Iran) are being bludgeoned from the top down starting from within all the developed democracies, you will no longer be a clueless man as to what is going on today or even how to think scientifically or philosophically.  Your post is what i would expect to read from a crushed, defeated and clueless individual who has based their thinking not on reality as it is, but based on the PR version presented by the Main Stream media.

Ahmad if you remain clueless, there is little hope for Iran, because every person counts.  Human Rights and Freedom don't extend even one milimeter outside the continental USA by the US govt, this is what they will never tell you. What exists on one side of a line for some is being destroyed elsewhere.  I wish this new year, you receive something wonderful.

 


bahmani

Welcome to Freedom

by bahmani on

As a free-Iranian who watched with mixed pride and personal shame, as your face graced the cover of the Economist, you showed me what the true and fiercely proud spirit of being an Iranian means. I cannot express my gratitude to you enough for what you have done and continue to do.

You are an inspiration to all of us who have sat mainly silent for these past 33 years, too afraid, too unsure, too scared, and too comfortable to speak out against the real "hostage crisis" continuing inside Iran today.

For if you can do what you have done, certainly we can do something. Anything, because every little bit helps, every tiny voice of objection matters, and if enough of us can get together on just one or 2 common things, we can change Iran, and that can change the world.

Thanks again. You are truly awesome.

To read more bahmani posts visit: //brucebahmani.blogspot.com/


Bavafa

A very moving blog...

by Bavafa on

It is of immense value to know what one has and not only recognize it but be grateful for it.  Much as has been expressed here, I am immensely grateful for all the freedom and opportunities that has been afforded me here and will always try to pay it back by being an conscientious member of my new home.

  But I also yarn the type of freedom and opportunities for those who have stayed behind in my mother land.   As some of the greatest values thought and practiced here, are the value of self-determination and accountability.  I do wish these values for our mother land, self-determination for Iranians to choose the type of system and government they want and accountability for bringing those in violation of human rights to account for their criminal deeds.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad


Shifteh Ansari

Thank you MPD

by Shifteh Ansari on

Thank you MPD for bringing us this heartfelt blog.  The image of Ahmad Batebi's holding that bloody shirt will without a doubt forever be associated with Iran's student movement and the price it has had to pay for walking ahead of the rest of the nation, leading them in their quest for freedom. I wish him well and hope that he finds peace and fulfillment in his personal and political life.


Simorgh5555

Multiple Personality

by Simorgh5555 on

I found your blog very moving. Freedom is not to.be taken for granted. You have experienced first hand what it is like to live under the oppression and sytematic brutality of the IR Terror Regime. I wish the complacent ignorant West residing Iranians take a leaf of your book. They do nothing to want to.support the struggle for freedom for Iranians. You know better than the rest of us that there is no political freedom or genuine democratic process and yet you have some morons who still advocate change from within. Shame on them especially ugly mouthpieces of the IR such as NIAC.


oktaby

I

by oktaby on

Had crossed paths with Batebi when helping his case via a friend, but do not know him in person. His writing shows the gratitude that any normal person will feel having had his experience in Iran. But he will go through more emotions as he experiences higher highs and lower lows. Life is labyrinthine. I am glad that except on the occasion of my father's passing, I have not directly experienced the misery that is the rapist republic. But even in those short few days spent mostly with tangible memories of my dad, I saw and felt what omen had befallen Iran. It was more alien than farthest corners of this strange world I have visited, despite all the familiar people and places. When I first left, my heart was about to burst with all the love and beauty I was leaving behind, temporarily I thought. But this time it was my veins bursting with undescribable disdain and anger for a pungent infestation eating away at all that is Iranian from within.

Oktaby