By
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Sa'di,
the thirteen century Iranian poet, was a man for all seasons. Distinct among his
peers for a rare poetic talent and a sharp humor, he was a traveler, teacher,
and master ghazal writer all in one. But, above all, he loved to tease
and to question. In a most serious love poem, he warned the beloved: I was
ruined by your love. I will not go to others to get well. And
lest the beloved gets all the credit for uniqueness, he added: broken gold
vessels cannot be repaired with glue. In real life, Sa'di offered his own glue
for fixing broken lives and social relations, a set of compassionate and
pragmatic ethical teachings published in his two celebrated books, the
Orchard, and the
Rose Garden. Despite hailing from the 13th century Iran, what Sa'di has
to offer is relevant to our contemporary lives in the 21st century U.S. Let me
tell you how I found him to be alluding to "enhanced" interrogation techniques
(pc for torture), and the House Resolution 362, when reading The Orchard
last week: "Children of Adam are limbs in a single body," Sa'di concluded an
anecdote. "If one is hurt, none will be able to rest." Let me elaborate.
The
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) who earned the 1997 Nobel for Peace, due to
their efforts to ban Landmines, have just published an important 120 page
report. Prepared by tens of physicians and other health professionals, the
report looks into systematic use of torture by the United States during its
interrogations of detainees at US detention facilities, including those at
Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan. In the words of General Antonio
Taguba, himself a US army official, the report "tells the largely untold human
story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief
and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture." He goes on to
say "This story is not only written in words: it is scrawled for the rest of
these individual's lives on their bodies and minds."
Fatemeh Keshavarz is the author of Jasmine
and Stars: Reading More than "Lolita"
in Tehran (order from
amazon) |
The report is fraught with gory details pointing
to physical violence, psychological abuse, and sexual humiliation. However, as
you move forward, if you have the stomach to read the details, something rather
unexpected happens. You start to feel sorry not just for those subjected to
these "enhanced" interrogation techniques but also for those who implemented
them. This is not because it is easy to overlook the responsibility of the
torturers. It is because you know deep down that no one can injure someone else
to this degree without injuring himself or herself in the process. And you don't
have to struggle to explain the reasoning behind your feeling. Sa'di has. If one
limb is injured, the whole body suffers. Interrogation techniques may have been
"enhanced" so the inflicted pain leaves minimal trace in the tortured body. But
nothing can protect the torturer from knowing what he, or she, has done. The
global human connection, which Sa'di refers to, is written into our beings.
Almost at the same time that the PHR report was
released, US Congressman Ackerman proposed a legislation (House Resolution 362)
which calls for intensifying the sanctions on Iran and imposing stringent
inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and
cargo entering or departing Iran. Analysts say that this would require a US
naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which amounts to an act of war! Are we
talking about more wars, more prisons, and more "enhanced" interrogation
techniques? How many more limbs can we hurt before the whole body goes into a
state of shock? Even Sa'di refrained from taking the metaphor that far. Perhaps
he hoped we would be wiser.
Fatemeh Keshavarz is Chair of
the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Washington
University and the author of
Jasmine and Stars: Reading more than Lolita in Tehran. She is currently
working on a monograph on the Medieval Persian Poet, Sa'di of Shiraz.
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