Former political prisoner, artist and civil rights activist, Atena Farghadani published a meaningful post on the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution whose goals have yet to be realized. The post entitled, “Which 38 years? Which celebration?”, reads in part:
In the same days (coinciding with the anniversary of the 1979 revolution) in 2015, the loudspeakers in Qarchak Prison blared out (a famous) anthem and one of the prisoners who was the same as my age started dancing to its tune!…
While the girl was dancing, I kept asking myself what she is happy about… Then I couldn’t bear it anymore. I stepped towards her and (in a reference to Khomeini, the late founder of the mullahs’ republic) said, ‘At least spend your energy for someone who wouldn’t answer, ‘nothing’, when he asked about his feelings on his way home.’
She stopped dancing and replied, ‘If you have to spend the years of your life in prison and your life has lost every trace of happiness, then you should dance to the fast rhythm of the falsest mottos, so that you can pass your days!’
Then, I thought of my own 30-year life that has been hospitalized in a prison and the eight years that I was not there…
These days, the people of my generation who are badly wounded ask themselves, “Which 38 years? Where are the scent of Lilies and Jasmines that had to come?… “
