A Letter from Hasti Amiri to Ehsan Faridi: A Voice for Life Against a Sentence of Death

💬A letter from Hasti Amiri, student activist and former ⁧#political_prisoner⁩, addressed to Ehsan Faridi, a student sentenced to death…

Hello my distant classmate, ⁧#Ehsan_Faridi⁩,

💬I don’t know whether you prefer we speak to you in Persian or Turkish. Universities build high walls to make sure we never get to see each other, and that’s why I don’t know much about you. But forgive me for not knowing your mother tongue. Maybe when you are free, you can teach us Turkish.

Dear Ehsan Faridi,

💬I know well what it means when an appeal is rejected only one hour after it is filed in the Supreme Court. I know well what the speed of reviewing and confirming your sentence means. These days I keep thinking where we went wrong that your picture has not yet become the pavement of the university; where I went wrong that the university hasn’t shouted your name louder. You may forgive us, because you feel the real blade of repression at your throat, but truly, when the knife reaches the bone, that’s when a person starts to think about their mistakes—and I keep repeating to myself these days that there is a moment when one must stand. And I think “life” is exactly that moment. The very beginning of action.

Ehsan dear,

💬You’ve been in pretrial detention since the last days of spring 2024. Before that, in winter 2023, you had been arrested for nearly 10 days and released on bail.

💬You’ve been sentenced for “corruption on earth.” Honestly, how did that interrogator—the same one involved in a financial corruption network in Tabriz who extorted bribes and was eventually dismissed—how did his pen glide so easily to write “corruptor on earth” for you? We are always the ones indebted, classmate!

💬In the end, what can a young person whose only position in this country is “student” even do? Protest? Revolt? Seek justice?

💬May the pen of anyone who sees this situation and stays silent be broken.

💬My dear, every time I see the videos of your family standing firm like a mountain to be your voice, I say to myself: I wish you could see how they have become your voice. I wish you could see those simple videos—so full of hope, mixed with the swallowed tears—so you could continue even more firmly.

💬That comrade under a death sentence in Evin, every time he calls, every time his voice shakes the Zagros mountains—you must have heard his name: Verisheh Moradi. Your resilience under the shadow of the gallows will rebuild every ruin. Hope is right here.

💬By the way, did your university end?

You didn’t get to take the first-semester exams of 1403, right? What was a university that they could take it from you…

But one day again, Ehsan Jan Faridi,

again,

you will return to that same university—but this time in freedom, freedom, freedom.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Autumn 1404

#No_To_Execution