Did you hear the news? Four thousand people have been arrested in the aftermath of the June elections. I repeat: Four THOUSAND. Two THOUSAND are still in prison. Eight hundred in Tehran alone. These are just based on official numbers announced by the prosecutor general, god knows what the actual figures are.
I wonder if many of us are shocked. We would be if it happened in the U.S. Or India. Or Korea. Or Turkey. Or Russia. Or any other country. But not in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is how the frequency and scale of brutality has made us numb.
We’re approaching the 31st anniversary of the revolution. We’ve seen thousands executed for their political and religious beliefs. Thousands of others have spent their best years in prison because they stood up to the Islamic Republic. Many of them have endured unspeakable torture.
Hundreds of thousands were killed or maimed in a war that could have ended six years sooner, when Iraqis were pushed out of almost every inch of Iranian territory. Equal numbers perished on the Iraqi side.
Meanwhile women were instantly stripped of their humanity. They were forced to cover themselves in public, whether they liked it or not. Stop and think about it for a second. Half the population suddenly lose many of the rights men, and women in most other countries, take for granted. Your mother, your sister, your wife, your friend reduced to objects.
Be honest guys: how many times have you thought about the status and treatment of women in Iran and said, wow, that’s fucked up? Most of us, myself included, simply forget what it is to be a woman in that god-forsaken country. Oh well. Ghesmat een bood. Some are born men, some are born less than men.
How about being born a Bahai? Kiss all your rights goodbye. Or a Jew… nagoo!
Those are just some of the devastating human costs. But what about the media, a subject that is particularly close to my heart? I wish there was a list of all the newspapers and magazines shut down in the past 31 years. I bet they add up to a couple of thousand, if not more. Each represented the voice of a segment of society, all silenced. Never mind all those journalists who lost their jobs or landed in prison. But praise be to god, we have Seda and Seema and a few newspapers to assure our dear Rahbar that everything is beautiful.
That’s all I wanted to say. I just thought that it was odd that the arrest of 4,000 people did not shock anyone. I forgot it happened in the Islamic Republic. I didn’t realize this is just another day. Have a good one. I will. I’m going to the movies tonight. Life is good.
