It is rare for powers to build a memorial in condemnation or even criticism of their own actions. It is a dream if they even whisper a hidden line on a stone in the Vatican.

My fault

“But is there a small sign of the centuries of crimes of the Catholic Church? Is there a mosque in the world that apologizes for its loudspeakers reciting verse 33 of Surah Al-Ma’idah? Or a building left from the Ottoman era – or the same kind of neo-Ottomans in Turkey today – that has a plaque condemning the Armenian genocide? Even in democratic governments, it is rare for them to denounce their crimes in public spaces. The only reminder of the Algerian and anarchist citizens who were drowned by the French police in the 1961 massacre is a small plaque that the socialist mayor of Paris installed on the Saint-Michel bridge four decades later in 2001. Public memorials are often tools of self-promotion for governments; they are designed and built to simply catch the eye and leave the viewer indifferent. An example of this is the grotesque August 28th memorial that the Pahlavi regime erected in Mehrabad Airport, or

Memorials are meant to embody a part of collective memory and often leave little room for reflection. Autocratic governments leave memorials in place to control the memory, just as Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s novel 1984, did in the “Ministry of Truth”. Winston reviewed past newspaper articles; he constructed the truth in a way that the power wanted from him. For our oppressive society, such a job is neither imaginary nor strange. Our history books have been written by these very Winstons. They also censor and control cities and cemeteries; they seem to be able to erase people and events that do not fit their agenda; they label dissidents and opponents as “undesirable elements”, eliminate them, and even prevent their memory from living on. They divide up rebellions into uprisings, riots, and conspiracies, and determine what can be seen in the city and what cannot be seen in the public sphere. The memorial wall of political

In 1308, by the order of Reza Shah, the first modern prison in Iran was built on the ruins of the Qajar palace. Prison number 2 was for political prisoners and prison number 3 was for political leaders. Before the construction of Evin prison, the Qasr prison was the only centralized prison in the capital. A few days before the victory of the 1957 revolution, the walls of the Qasr prison were destroyed and the prisoners were released. In 2004, the Qasr prison was closed. In 2012, the prison was turned into a museum and a large memorial wall was built on its walls.

At first, it was planned to have the names of around 180 prominent political prisoners of the Pahlavi era on the wall. However, the prison authorities removed the names of the Pahlavi prisoners so that they would not be among the first names. For example, the late Dariush Forouhar and Vida Hajebi Tabrizi did not make it there, but the full name of a terrorist like Navvab Safavi shines brightly on the wall. As is the practice of censors, even from the initial 180 names, those who were considered “controversial” were removed, leaving only 80 names written in small letters on the wall. And as is the practice of censors, they also erased those names and removed many of them from the wall.

The hands of those in power have built a wall around the Islamic Republic, without even asking for permission. This wall denies the existence of many political activists and erases them from the collective memory and public sphere. The viewer of this wall cannot remain indifferent, as it is now filled with holes and these holes bear witness to the absence of those who have been martyred. They call upon us to imagine many names on this wall, just as we have learned to fill in the dotted lines. The wall of the Qasr Garden Museum is a direct contradiction to our memories, and not a validation of the struggles of those approved by the Islamic Republic, which has been erasing their memory for decades.

The text is not provided. Please provide the Farsi text to be translated.

1- Footnotes:
1- The author’s photo is of “Maryam Ashrafi”.
2- The photos of the walls of the Garden Museum Palace are of “Barbad Golshiri”.