A mother protecting her child isn't
anything unique. But in Iran, humanitarian activist mothers are now
becoming global icons for human rights causes worldwide. In silent public
protest, the 'Mourning Mothers of Iran,' known locally in Tehran as the 'Mothers
of Laleh,' stand together each week, on Saturday evening vigils in Tehran's
Laleh Park.
"I urge all women around the world to show their
solidarity with the Committee of Iranian Mothers in Mourning by assembling in
parks, in their respective countries, every Saturday between the hours of 7 to 8
p.m., wearing black," said Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, in a plea
made to women and activists worldwide at a July 25 Iran pro-democracy rally in
Amsterdam. Like the infamous "Women in Black," and the 'Madres de Plaza de
Mayo,' the Committee of Iranian Mothers use methods of ethics in non-violence to
bring attention to the atrocity of their dead children.
Beginning in Jerusalem, in 1988, a group of
almost 40 Israeli-Jewish women of conscience formed 'The Women in Black.' To
make their point, they wore black clothing and stood silent in public protests.
They protested against Israeli expansion into the West Bank and Gaza on the
heels of the beginning of the 1987 Palestinian intifada. Soon Arab women from
the northern region of Israel also joined the Women in Black. The message
was asked for "Peace!" Opposing war, injustice, and militarism, Women in Black
groups and their affiliates can also be found in Iran, Australia, the UK,
Serbia, Japan, South Africa, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, US,
India, Nepal, Uruguay, Argentina and the Philippines, to name a few.
Outside of Jerusalem, 1988 was also a very dark
period for Iranian history. In a few summer months, an enormity of crimes
against humanity occurred as an overwhelming number of Iranian political
prisoners were massacred. This left thousands of Iranian mothers devastated.
According to reports from Amnesty International,
4,500-10,000 Iranian political prisoners were declared killed or missing inside
the country that year, over a period that lasted barely two months. After
finding out about the death of their loved ones, the families of the victims
were not allowed to receive the bodies of their dead. They were also not allowed
to hold any funerals. Instead, the held bodies were dumped together in places
like Khavaran or what the regime referred to as La'nat-Abad, 'The Damned Place,'
a cemetery used for burying non-Muslims.
Mass burials at Khavaran were later accidentally
discovered by an Armenian priest who had become curious as to why stray dogs
kept digging for bones at, what was later determined the location of the mass
graves. French-Iranian woman filmmaker, Mehrnoushe Solouki, was held in Evin
Prison for nine months as she, too, stumbled on the discovery in 2007.
"The deliberate and systematic manner in which
these extrajudicial executions took place may constitute a crime against
humanity under international law," said Human Rights Watch, in 2005. Perhaps of
all the crimes against humanity in the last 30 years, the 1988 Iranian mass
executions continue to be the most revealing indication of the regime's contempt
and fear of political dissidents.
"In the recent events, the government in Iran has
been fabricating reports depicting an incorrect image of what has been going on
in the country," said Ebadi at the July 25, 2009 rally. "They do not want the
people to know the truth."
We may think this kind of protest is new in Iran,
but Iranian mothers have always spoken out against violence, disappearance and
the torture of their sons and daughters. Prior to the 1979 revolution, only two
mothers' organizations existed in the country. Both were affiliated with
underground groups involved in struggles for democracy. They worked in
opposition to the monarchy of the Shah's regime, who's policies had turned, at
the end, to the jailing and torture of intellectuals, feminists, students, and
labour union advocates.
"I need to tell my story. No one can stop me. No
one!" said Parvin Fahimi,
an active member of Mothers for Peace and the mother of slain 19 year old
Iranian protester, Sohrab Arabi, said recently in July. "My son had been killed,
but they refused to tell me," she continued.
Madres de Plaza de Mayo - Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2008
On July 11, 2009, young Sohrab Arabi was
identified as 'Picture Number 12′ by his older brother at the Shapour Street
Police Station in Tehran. He was dead and his family finally knew the truth. He
had been missing for 26 days. On the realization, his mother was beside herself
with grief.
"Please hear my painful story as a
resident of Tehran. I lost my son on Monday 25 of Khordad (15 June) during a
peaceful rally that was taking place to protest the election results. With
the crowds estimated at a minimum of 3 million, many people were lost and I
too lost my son. The mobiles were cut off and I couldn't reach him - I
searched everywhere for him and went back home and found he was not there
either so I went back to Azadi Square to keep searching for him. The
atmosphere was terrible, so much tear gas everywhere, it felt more like a
battle ground and I have been sick ever since with chest problems. I
couldn't find my child and I returned home and together with the sons of my
relatives. As we searched every hospital and police station we didn't get a
response. My son did not have his ID card with him; he just had a bit of
money on him to go and buy test papers at Enghelab Sqaure to prepare for the
university entrance exams coming up...
That night I still did not hear of my
son. The next morning when I called 110 (the emergency police call number)
they told me to refer to my local police station. I went to the local police
station and filed a missing persons report and they started the search
process. No one had the guts to tell me than that maybe my son was killed;
some people said he was probably arrested and some said he may be injured. I
found out that 7 people were killed that day (at the protests) of those, 5
had been identified and 2 had not. The 2 that had not been identified were
apparently older. The sons of my family members went to see the 5 that were
identified and they confirmed that none of them was Sohrab. I was relieved
to hear that and thought that my son was therefore arrested. I knew that he
wasn't injured because I searched every single hospital. I am aware that
some hospitals would not give me a clear answer, but others did.
So I headed out for the Revolutionary
Court (Evin Prison) to follow up on his arrest. They told me to return home
and I told them I couldn't - I am a Mother - I couldn't even eat. To this
date I have a hard time eating. My throat just closes up. I have kept myself
going through liquids only in the past few weeks. I can't tell you how much
time I spent at the Revolutionary Court... if I were to write the story it'd
make a very thick book. . .
How can a 19 year old that has yet to sit
at the University entrance exams, and has yet to fulfill any one of his
dreams, be killed? By whom; and on whose orders; and for what? I ask the
City Council, what did my son ask of you? What did he ever ask of the
government? What did he ask of his country? ...We wanted nothing but peace,
tranquility and a freedom of thought - that's what's important to us, is
that my son thought about whom he voted for and where his vote goes. He
didn't ask for anything else. Just because he was a supporter of Mr. Mousavi,
he must be killed? For what crime? On the basis of what guilt? My son was in
the prime of his youth, a 19 year old, who never fulfilled his dreams. As a
mother, I ask God day and night to put an end to this injustice."
- Parvin Fahimi, mother of slain protester,
Sohrab Arabi
(Partial testimony given during a Tehran City Council
meeting July 23, 2009)
The exact circumstance surrounding the death of
Sohrab Arabi continues to be unexplained. According to the International
Campaign for Human Rights Iran, when the family received Arabi's body, his death
appeared to be from the result of a gunshot wound to the chest, but no one knows
when or where this injury occurred. An official, but inconclusive, report was
made by the Coroner on June 19.
The lives of the mothers of missing global
activists, who are often called, 'mothers of the disappeared,' are often filled
with moments of endurance and courage, in spite of the grief they carry. From
the mothers of slain reporters working in Iraqi Kurdistan or the Ukraine; to the
mothers of missing activist children in Iran or Argentina; the mothers of those
who have who have 'gone missing' have the same experience over and over
again. Mothers worldwide have the same fear, grief, anger and frustration about
their dead and missing children.
"I begged the gunmen to kill me instead, and they
pushed me away and told me that they wanted her not me," said Kurdish mother of
slain Iraqi journalist, Sara Abdul-Wahab, during a May 2008 Associated Press
interview. In spite of her mother's attempt to save her life, Sarwa was fatally
shot twice in the head by kidnappers. Tragically, her mother felt she could do
nothing to save her daughter. Sarwa was the only breadwinner for a widowed
mother, a sister and brother. She was a strong defender of human rights, a
Kurdish lawyer and activist in Iraq, who continued to work in spite of numerous
threats against her life.
When Ukrainian Prosecutor, General Mykhaylo
Potebenko, issued a statement saying that DNA tests were delayed due to the
illness of Lesya Gongadze, the mother of the missing and presumed dead human
rights reporter Georgy Gongadze, Leyla grew suspicious. "This is a complete lie
and deception," she told Ukrainska Pravda, the Web newspaper that her son
founded. "I wasn't that sick, not so much as to be unable to give my blood for
analysis. I was even insisting on it because I wanted to know the truth," she
added.
For nine year Gongadze case has been rife with
confusing facts and government shuffle. Georgy Gogandze's mother, Lesya Gongadze
has been struggling to expose the facts from the moment her son went missing.
Faced with the dilemma of not trusting the validity of DNA tests made by the
Ukrainian authorities for an unidentifiable body that was found in 2000, Lesya
continues to ask questions and demand clarity on the true circumstances
surrounding the murder of her son. To date, she has not been satisfied with the
answers given her.
Continue reading.....
Prostest poster from International Women's Day - Paris, 7 March,
2009. Image: Hugo de C
In Argentina, mothers of missing activists ask
the same questions as mothers worldwide. These questions have lasted in
Argentina almost 33 years. In 1977, they came together in Buenos Aries calling
themselves the 'Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo).'
Ignoring a law prohibiting more than 3 people from gathering in one place, they
began walking the plaza two by two, in the form of heroines under the threat of
arrest. They began as 14 mothers who publically protested the disappearance of
their children. Their protests began during what has been called the 'Dirty War'
of Argentina, a war beginning with the military dictatorship of General Jorge
Rafael Videla.
"By the end of the year (1977), thousands would
be illegally detained, tortured, assassinated or disappeared," says a now
declassified document at the US National Security Archive.
In panic under the sudden disappearances of
Argentine labour advocates, students and social activists, the mothers began to
speak out strongly to demand answers. A military coup had taken over Argentina
with a vengeance, lasting seven long years with what has been counted today as
up to 30,000 missing or dead.
In 1978, "A recent dramatic occurrence was the
abduction, in December, of five 'mothers of the disappeared' and two French
nuns, whose bodies were reportedly discovered washed ashore," continues the
declassified US National Security Archive report.
"One of the things that I simply will not do now
is shut up. The women of my generation in Latin America have been taught that
the man is always in charge and the woman is silent even in the face of
injustice... Now I know that we have to speak out about the injustices publicly.
If not, we are accomplices. I am going to denounce them publicly without fear.
This is what I learned," says Mother of Plaza de Mayo, Marķa del Rosario de
Cerruti.
Since 1977, the bereaved mothers have gathered to
walk around the Plaza de Mayo in central Buenos Aires for 30 minutes
every Thursday afternoon. Wearing white headscarves as a symbol of peace, the
simple action of the mothers walking in a circle for peace has finally caught
the world's attention. Their movement has inspired families of the disappeared
and victims of human rights violations in many parts around the world to engage
in similar peaceful protests in public places.
On June 27, the Mothers of Lelah made a formal
statement to the world that echoed the grief of all mothers worldwide.
"What crime have they committed to
deserve death? Why do we Iranian mothers have to bear this enormous grief?
What is our crime? We will never let this crime against us and our children
pass by unnoticed. From now until the release of all detained demonstrators,
the cessation of violence and until our children's killers receive their
punishment, we will every week gather in silent mourning near the place
where our beloved martyr Neda died at Park Laleh. We urge all parents who
are concerned about their daughters and sons, the future capital of our
country to join us."
- The Committee of Mothers Iran (Mourning
Mothers of Laleh) 2009
To date, the Argentine mothers have received 3
major international awards for their work with human rights; the Sakharov Prize
for Freedom of Thought, the United Nations Prize for Peace Education and the
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. It is expected that the
Committee of Mothers Iran (The Mourning Mothers of Laleh) will follow the legacy
of Madres de Plaza de Mayo with special award and recognition in their time.
"Holding on to memory is the way to fight the
remains of the past regimes who want the whole story of the disappeared to
vanish," said Morea, one of the Plaza de Mayo mothers.
"If you want justice and freedom, you have to put
everything else on hold," said Iranian mother Parvin Fahimi, recently in a Sept
2009 interview.
This subtitled (English) video shows the depth of funeral grief of
Parvin Fahimi, the mother of slain 19 year old Iranian protester, Sohrab Arabi,
as she speaks out against the murder of her son.
Rock star, Bono, from the infamous band U2, brings the Mothers of
Plaza de Mayo on stage during a concert in Santiago, Chile (1998) to address the
audience one by one as they share their pleas for justice.
For more information on this important
topic go to:
Additional sources for this article include
Amnesty International, BBC Persian, Committee to Protect Journalists, Iranian
Progressives in Translation, IPS, University of San Francisco Jesuit Education,
US National Security Archive, CNN, Associated Press, Harvard Law School, US
State Department, Radio Free Europe, International Campaign for Human Rights
Iran, Frontline, Kyiv Post Independence News, Human Rights First, Iraqi News,
KHPG.org - Human Rights in Ukraine, Women in Black and Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
About the authors:
Special correspondent for Women News Network - WNN, Elahe Amani, is
director of Technology for Student Affairs at California State University. She
is also a 2007 Lillian Robles Award winner for her outstanding community
service, social education efforts and feminist activism and is chair of Women
Intercultural Network (WIN).
Humanitarian journalist, Lys Anzia, is
Director/Editor-at-Large for Women News Network - WNN
