“Only from the heart Can you touch the sky.
” Jalal ad-Din Rumi quote
Sometimes, not only from the heart you can touch the sky.
Sometimes one can touch the sky from hurt,
from times of uncomfort and unrest.
From places of courage and bravery that remain
unknown until needed in pain.
I have been reading in several respected journals and news-sites,
especially here in Israel, that the green revolution,
launched in June 2009 after the disputed election for
Islamic Republic of Iran "failed".
Islamic Republic of Iran "failed".
It didn't achieve its alleged goals:
to overthrow the "Islamic regime"
or to form "Secular Democracy in Iran".
Many of its activists were jailed or even tortured and executed.
Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be hard-line West-hostile
on its foreign policy.
A year later, there aren't millions of Iranian protesters
marching out in the street,
marching out in the street,
no more sights of mass mayhem and havoc,
clashes between government forces and protesters.
But the impact the Iranian protesters have created on media,
and on Global society can still be felt world-wide,
all around us.
The begining of 21st century can be portrayed with
several qualities and phenomena:
it can be seen as an age of materialism, individualism
growing use of technology while old traditions and
manners are
being forgotten and neglected by
communities and societies.
Terms like "Human solidarity",
"Universal compassion" seem to be meaningful only to
certain groups of "activist" individuals.
Those virtues have seemed to lose their relevance,
laid back in the "Hippie" generation of the 60's of the last century.
laid back in the "Hippie" generation of the 60's of the last century.
We are flooded with information, screened on Television,
displayed on web-pages,
displayed on web-pages,
brought to us by text-messages,
video clips by mobile phones, even as we move or speak.
Can we tell if historical events are to be accelerated,
or the way those events are being manifested changes their resolution?
Being over-exposed to data seems to make one more alienated, indifferent to the news.
One might lose his sensitivity, confronting the endless stream of atrocities.
The power of Iran-oriented Green Movement lies, in my opinion, in the way it has managed to recruit the modern media to its needs, using social media not only to transfer information but also to deliver a message, and create identification with its goals and needs.
The world was shocked when young and innocent
Neda Agha Soltan was shot in the street during a demonstration she didn't even attend.
Neda Agha Soltan was shot in the street during a demonstration she didn't even attend.
The world was also amazed by young people who were willing to risk their lives in order to have their cry heard.
Proud people who would rather die than not be free
of political repression and religious coercion.
of political repression and religious coercion.
We saw those people in Beharshtan, during the post election riots,
We heard those people chanting Allah Akbar from the rooftops of Tehran on Youtube,
painting green graffiti on walls.
creating cartoons, caricatures.
We met new kind of heroes: web3 type such as
Bloggers, writters and thinkers -
people totally devoted and dedicated to the cause of getting the word going,
spreading around news about the happenings in their country.
We heard student leaders such as Majid Tavakoli making speeches,
then getting arrested and paying a heavy price for speech freedom.
We were also exposed to prominent Iranian citizens such as Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, human rights advocate, who made speeches to the mainstream media.
Those activists served as voices of voiceless people,
making us familiar with faces and documented stories of Islamic Rebuplic's victims of tragedy: young people like Benhood Shojaei and Delera Darabi, who were executed for crimes they commited before the age of 18.
We also became familiar with names of people detained and tortured by Islamic Republic of Iran Regime, or killed during protests: Mokhamad Kamrani, Soharb Arabi, Kianoosh Asa,Taraneh Mousavi.
Though I can't name them all from heart, there are many others that will never be forgotten.
I will not forget Isa Saharkiz - Journalist and publisher detained in Evin
prison in Iran.
Will not forget Jafar Panahi, a detained film-maker, currently out on bail,
or the horror stories such as Kahrizak - a rehabilitation center turned into a torture facility,
the attacks on the prominent opposition leader Moullah Mehdi Karroubi,
and the shutting down of his paper Etemad Meli.
Trying to extract my thoughts and feelings of a year in which I was attracted, perhaps possesed by the green Iranian movement I can never say that those people have failed. For me,
they have won in many aspects, turning cyber-space into a battle field for human-rights, justice and freedom rather than a playground for groups of hatred and racism.
Bringing up human rights such as speech freedom to the front stage of my mind and conscious.
Making me feel obligated to use my rights and abilty to go out and protest for human rights where I am, in Israel, which is also a country in terrible need of change, and surely not heaven of freedom to its Arab citizens, who face occupation, racism and discrimination day by day.
Because although lots of credit and respect is given to those who blog and spread the news, the first class of honour and respect goes for the mass of Iranian people who took to the streets, standing up for their rights.
Those people have made a choice to make their own destiny, take responsibilty for change,
not sitting and waiting for it in vein.
Those people have created a path that everyone on earth can follow, wherever he or she is.
They have inspired many hearts of freedom-lovers and human rights activists.
They have created a change, a green wave of freedom that I hope to see spreading, prosperous-
towards every place on planet where people are repressed.
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