A letter from Prison honors Kurds executed in Iran

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Rajai Shahr Prison, Iran- Two Kurdish prisoners who have been on death row in Iran since December 2010 sent a letter out of their jail cell  in commemoration of the two year anniversary of the execution of Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar, and four other Kurdish prisoners, Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Mehdi Eslamian and Shirin Alam Hooli. Kamangar was detained in 2006 for allegedly collaborating with Kurdish opposition groups against Iran, and he was charged with being an “enemy of God”. He was brutally tortured, and on 9 May 2010, along with four of his fellow prisoners, Kamangar was secretly executed by the Iranian government, who refused to hand over his body to his family.

Today, the memory of Farzad Kamangar and his fellow prisoners is carried forward by two more Kurds in Iranian prison, Zanyar and Loghman Moradi. Both have been on death row in Iran since December 2010, and are at imminent risk of execution by the Iranian regime. Their heartfelt letter commemorates the anniversary of Kamangar’s execution, and praises the unity and solidarity that emerged between the Kurdish region of Iran and the rest of the country as a result of his death.

“It has been two years since the event that none of us want to hear about— the day when the Iranian people everywhere were as sad as Kurdistan and the Kurdish people. It was the day when another page in Iran’s tragic history was written in the land of Kurdistan. The Kurdish history has seen so many bitter days throughout the years…..

When we heard the news [about Farzad’s death], we did not need to try to imagine it based on what others were saying. We understood their ordeal through experiencing solitary confinement, black and insufferable torture, deprivation from seeing our families, looming death sentences, unfair trials, bitter and dark stories of a prisoner, and various other stories told by those who were inmates with Farzad, Farhad, and Ali…

Blood cannot wash blood. Violence is not quenched through violence. Violence leads to violence, and bloodshed will bring about more bloodshed. Until when will the sounds of bullets and mourning on dead bodies silence and drown joyous cheers? How much more violence will overpower peace and happiness? Which generation will be the last to hear the ominous news of executions?”

Read the full letter from Zanyar and Loghman Moradi here, and take action so that these two young Kurdish prisoners may avoid the same fate.