All enchained birds must be freed

By Nasrin Faizi- Former political prisoner in Iran

My name is Nasrin Feizi and for about ten years, meaning from 1981 to 1990 I was held captive in the Iranian regime’s dungeons, including Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, and Ghezel Hesar and Gohardasht prisons in Karaj, west of the Iranian capital. The months of July, August and September always remind me of the 30,000 political prisoners executed in a horrific massacre back in 1988 by Khomeini’s regime in Iran. Each year, during these months, I am lost in my memories of those innocent victims, and once again I pledge yet another, stronger oath to continue this struggle to avenge their deaths. The answer to all of this lies in the “Overthrow of the vicious mullahs’ regime ruling Iran”.

In this article I would like to refer to one of my many memories of a number of very brave women who were executed by the mullahs’ regime during the 1988 massacre. In the spring of 1982 after my court hearings and receiving my sentence, I was transferred to Ghezel Hessar Prison and from there I went to ward 8, known as the ward used to punish women. This ward belonged to women who would not surrender to the regime’s tortures and pressures. There was a hall consisting of 12 cells, each being 1.6m x 2.5m, with a three-decker bed fitted inside. 26 people were placed in each of these cells, and we were forced to take turns to sit, stand up or lay down. At times it would get so hot that we literally had to take turns to breathe. They would open the cell gates just three times a day for prayer and breakfast, lunch and dinner, and once again we had to return to the cell with the 25 or 26 others.

Assadollah Lajevardi, head of the regime’s prisons and Khomeini’s torture chambers, known as the “Evin Executioner”, would personally come to the ward himself and resort to various types of tortures to break the prisoners’ will and force them to repent from their struggle for freedom. However, each time he would return after being defeated by the strong will and perseverance seen in the female prisoners, truly making him tired and worn out, and at times simply desperate.

Since this ward was used to punish the prisoners we were rarely aloud to have fresh air. One day, for a very short period, they let us go to the courtyard. I was taking a walking when I saw a small bird amongst the barbed wire above the high cement walls of the courtyard. It was stuck and kept on trying to escape, but it couldn’t fly away from the razor sharp connections. The women prisoners, all enchained because of their struggle for their people’s freedom, couldn’t tolerate such a scene as the bird tried desperately to flee itself from the shackles. Therefore, we decided to help the bird, knowing it wouldn’t come without a price. The prison walls were very tall and the bird was stuck on the top most line of the barbed wires. One of the stronger prisoners bent down and said get on my back. Another went on her back and a third carefully went on her shoulders and pulled herself up. All of us gathered around these three brave prisoners and two-by-two we went on each other’s backs to hold the legs of the third prisoner standing on top. We gave her a stick and she began moving the barbed wire. The bird went free and flew away. The courtyard became a beautiful scene of solidarity amongst all the prisoners who gathered their efforts to free the bird, and this was a sign of their will to the very last breath to fight for freedom, at whatever the price it may be. We were all hugging each other and weeping in joy, screaming “It escaped, it escaped”. All this noise and “it escaped” was heard by the prison guards. They rushed to the scene and began asking what happened and what’s all the fuss about? In response we said didn’t you see it escaped?

It went, escaped? They began shouting again, who escaped? Where did it escape from?

To make them even more confused we said we don’t where it went, but it escaped.

They made us face the walls to do a headcount. They counted us again and again, and each time they saw everyone was accounted for.

Once again they began shouting and screaming what was all the crazy fuss about?

Without paying any attention to them we would tell each other, did you see how it beautifully flew away?

The guards then threatened to have us stand there until nightfall. We finally explained that a bird was stuck in the barbed wire, but it escaped and flew away…

Although during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran no one could be found to lend a hand or help one climb their shoulders, to save these innocent “birds” from Khomeini’s gallows, this year, on the verge of the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of the proud People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, with the memories of the 30,000 victims of the 1988 massacre bonding with the 52 Iranian refugees massacred back in September 2013 in Camp Ashraf located north of Baghdad, and also bonding with the struggle and perseverance seen from PMOI members in the Camp “Liberty”, a ransacked former US military camp adjacent to Baghdad International Airport, and the efforts of Iranian Resistance supports inside Iran and across the globe, each day the regime in Iran is becoming weaker and weaker, and closer and closer to the day when it will most definitely be overthrown. Sooner than later, the last nail in the coffin of the first caliphate in the Middle East will be hammered by the Iranian people, and this nation will be freedom from the shackles and barbed wire imposed by the mullahs’ regime. What is amazing is that Ms. Zohre Ghaemi and Ms. Fateme Kamiyab, both victims of the 2013 Camp Ashraf massacre, were my cellmates in cell #5 of ward 8. They were both amongst those who rushed to free that innocent bird. They sacrificed their all in Camp Ashraf, paving the path for freedom for the Iranian people of tomorrow.