“To all freedom-loving people wherever they may live.” – A Conversation with the Mother of Farzad Kamangar, a Kurdish Activist on Death Row.
By Mohammad-Amin Kamangar

On Monday, January the 11th, 10:00 am Iran time, Farzad Kamangar contacted his family. This is the conversation they had.

Farzad: Hi mom, I hope you are well.

Farzad’s Mother: Yes dear, I am very well and I am proud of you. Believe me I am doing well, as always.

Farzad: Mom, how are the kids (Farzad’s students) doing? What do they say? What are they up to? What is the media saying?

His mother’s response to these questions is brief and the phone is then suddenly disconnected.

Farzad’s mother wishes to deliver the following message:

“Please send my best wishes to Mina Ahadi and tell her that she should send a message to all mothers who have lost loved ones and those whose loved ones are imprisoned like mine that we should do something for them ourselves.

“All the youngsters who have been executed, are being executed, and those in detention, are all my brothers and sisters, just as my Farzad is a son to countless others. I have said this many times: He belongs to all people. Human beings are not different from each other, be they Persian, Kurd, Arab or Turk. We are all human beings and we want freedom and dignity. But who do we talk to? Where? How?

“My message to mothers in the same situation is this: my dear sisters and my dear daughters, wherever we are, whatever our ideas and opinions, we need to join hands, stay in touch and protest in a unified manner. We need to rise together. What are they going to do to us? Execute us? Let us be executed so that we may never see the deaths of our children. Dear mothers, please let us join hands to free our young people. I know that these gentlemen (regime officials) are listening to these words. Let them hear me. Let them execute me. I will sooner set myself on fire than silence myself. Have they not seen what happened to the Shah? Have they not seen what happened to Saddam? They should not continue on this path or they will meet the same fate.

“What do the youth want besides freedom? What crime has Farzad committed except seeking freedom? He has spent 4 years in prison. Lately his lawyer wanted to review his file and they have told him that the file is lost! His lawyer has suffered a stroke because of the stress caused by Farzad’s case and the tens of other similar cases, and is now hospitalized.

“I am pleading with the Human Rights Commission, all political parties and organizations that are for humanity and all people who fight for human dignity. The situation is very dangerous. They are executing youngsters everyday.

If anyone can do anything, please do. Do not let them execute youngsters en masse. You and all the world shall be my defense. Please let the world hear my message.”

Translation: Tour Irani