Ali Kalai

“Being human is a difficult duty. Perhaps these words may initially seem like a mere string of words, following each other and leaving no trace of the contemporary Iranian morning poetry. With a meaning that only evokes a human understanding in the mind. A meaning that is relevant to philosophical understanding and theoretical conceptualizations, and is not limited to the physical, flesh and blood human; it is a story beyond philosophizing and theorizing.”

But our time has created people of duty. People who are the birds of truth. The right to fight for humanity, equality, and freedom. They are the few who, according to the third Imam of the Shiites, stand against adversity and are the people of the path and the way. They are the people who, if they did not exist, in the age of technology and machines and complex and colorful people, honesty, frankness, courage, and steadfastness would have become concepts that should be sought in myths and historical books. Qualities that were once considered qualities of the past are now nonexistent.

These people are definitely in need of criticism. They are dictators who are not infallible and definitely make mistakes, but they are people of action, not those who sit and sleep through history. They are religious. They are the people of religion and the agents of the verb “to go”. History is in motion and its locomotive remembers these people, not those who sit and sleep and have been forgotten under the wheels of this locomotive.

Narges Mohammadi is going to prison. A human rights activist. Deputy head of the Association of Human Rights Defenders. A national religious activist. Someone who may have carried the burden of an entire movement on her shoulders for days and months, alone. With all her illnesses. Five pills a day and the danger of disability due to imprisonment and lack of medication. Standing tall and without fear on her face. Steadfast. Her voice still ringing in the ears on the anniversary of the Star of Paradise massacre. Sometimes her cries break the dark silence of tyranny. In a time when everyone has become nuclear and waiting for historical agreements, one becomes the bird of truth and speaks of human rights. A lady with two children who, of course, neither the mother nor the father, both fighters and thinkers, want their children to be involved in their parents’ issues. Let it be that some inattentive people (at best and by definition) take the sanctity of childhood with their

But Mrs. Narges Mohammad is not alone in prison and after her arrest. Her old father’s heart is boiling like vinegar. A father who carries the burden of Evin prison on his shoulders. With a cane and after eight decades of life and more than six decades of struggle. A father who has been a guest of this very prison not once, but multiple times, not for a year or two, but for several years. Mohammad Maleki, the first president of Tehran University after the victory of the anti-monarchy revolution in February 1979, is the elderly father of Narges Mohammad who carries the burden of Evin prison on his shoulders. Sitting with his back to the wall, leaning comfortably against the monitor and with his hand on the keyboard. Turning his back to all the temptations of silence and sitting on the sidelines that the rulers offer to the informed to buy their silence, he carries the burden of Evin prison on his shoulders to help his daughter, Narges Mohammad

This scene and image reminds us of Mohammad Maleki, as well as another Mohammad. The Mohammad who embodies the spirit and name of Mohammad Maleki. The Mohammad who became the leader of a movement and the founder of a tradition that stood for freedom, liberty, human dignity, and resistance against tyranny. Mohammad Mossadegh seems to have once again woven his eyes on the behavior and actions of his 80-year-old son, Mohammad Maleki. Mossadegh of Ahmadabad, who himself is a man of humanity and a successful founder of a tradition, and a well-known figure in history, is a witness to the steadfastness and fundamental duty of a son from the descendants who fought during the nationalization of oil. Mohammad Maleki was only 20 years old during the coup against Mossadegh in 1953, and today, at the age of 80, he still stands on the same tradition.

The nation stands behind his words, towards power and towards humanity, people and freedom. He urges you to not make deals. Do not forget the opposition, human rights, and the fight for humanity, and do not be absent from the stage behind the curtain of silence. Come to the scene. The call that this elder is making while walking with a bent back is the call of the people of Evin.

Mohammad Maleki has also borrowed another quality from Dr. Mosaddegh Ahmad Abadi. Limited and specific goal and unlimited resistance. Maleki’s goal here is the freedom and liberation of his daughter, Narges. He has defined a limited goal based on his abilities and on the basis of the qualities of the world of reality and possibility. But his resistance is unlimited. At over eight decades of age, he stands for hours and once again willingly sacrifices himself for his goal.

“Malaki, a young heart. His first arrest was during the student movement of the 1940s. He was arrested multiple times during the first student uprising after the coup d’état of August 28, 1953. He spent five years in prison and five years under a death sentence in the 1960s, miraculously surviving and being released in 1965. He was imprisoned again in 1979, 1980, and 1988. Malaki is a name that is respected by interrogators and proudly carried by fighters. This time, he stands alongside Narges Banoo Mohammadi, a woman who has turned patience into a virtue and revived the fight with dignity. “

“If in our time, the struggle and activism for human rights and the realization of citizens’ rights requires a path, the steadfastness of Malik and Narges Mohammadi and their resistance is the path. A specific resistance behind a specific goal, yet with an unlimited and timeless resistance against everything. Ruin Tan had no attachment to the materialistic world and its luxuries, and did not desire positions and titles.”

We must learn the tradition and actions of Nargess Mohammadi and Mohammad Maleki. We must honor the image of them holding the staff, facing towards Evin, and the flame they have ignited as a guiding torch. The map of time and place is precise, but the torches must remain lit so that the path does not get lost, until the desired destination is reached.