Iran Document: For the Dead, For Political Prisoners --- "We Are All Leyla Tavassoli"

Leyla Tavassoli is a young female engineer and the daughter of Mohammad Tavassoli, head of the political office of the Freedom Movement of Iran. Last December, during the demonstrations on the religious day of Ashura, she reportedly witnessed a police car run over and kill a protestor (possibly the event in the video below). She was detained afterwards and is still in prison.

Zahra Rahnavard, activist, academic, and wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi, has written this open letter:

We are all Leyla Tavassoli and we all bear witness to the fact that innocent citizens and mourners of Imam Hossein were martyred on Ashura.  Why don't you take a look back at our history? Where do you stand on cruelty and oppression?

We are all Leyla Tavasosli and we bear witness to the fact that you the unworthy oppressors crushed and martyred our innocent citizens and innocent youth, the mourners of Imam Hossein, under the wheels of your cars on Ashura. Martyrs Amirarjmand Tajmir, Abbas Farajizadeh, Shahrokh Rahmani, and Shabnam Sohrabi...and most probably many other innocent citizens whose names have not been published have been crushed by the cars of security officers all under the pretext of national security.  

We are all Leyla Tavassoli and we bear witness to the fact that you perpetrators crushed the bones, ribs and heart of young Negin's mother, Mrs. Shabnam Sohrabi, under the wheels of your car.

We are all Leyla Tavassoli and we bear witness to the fact that on Ashura, a day of mourning for Imam Hossein, you aimed directly for the heart of Seyed Ali Mousavi [the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi], murdering and martyring him at around noon on Ashura while he was chanting Ya Hossein [Hossein is Great].  We bear witness to the beaten and bloody bodies of innocent citizens such as Ali and Karim Mostafa Beygi and Rasekhnia who were also present on that day.

We are all Leyla Tavassoli and we bear witness to the fact that you unjust perpetrators threw innocent protesting citizens off bridges, murdering and martyring them on bloody Ashura last year. 

However in the very near future, the ashes that remain under the fire will once bear witness to your crimes. Today more than ever everyone is aware. Your actions are no longer hidden to others. They will bear witness to your cruelty and destruction. For who amongst us is not aware that you have filled the prisons with our innocent and righteous intellectuals, scholars, students and educators, while allowing murderers, oppressors and those who support dictatorship to roam free?

To those whose hands are stained with the blood of children of our nation,

To those who have orphaned children through violence,

To those who have wounded the hearts of so many mothers,

To those who are responsible for so many women becoming widowers and the destruction of so many families,

To those who have put newlyweds behind bars,

To those who have for ever separated the beating hearts of lovers with bullets and arms,

To those who have tortured young women and insulted, hurt and beaten our elders,

To those who have sent so many innocent, freedom seeking citizens to prison or punished them through exile,

and

To all those who demonstrate their superiority complex towards women through persecution, coercion and interference in their private lives, accosting women with rude and offensive language and accusing them of vulgarities.

To all those we say,

We are all Leyla Tavassoli and we all bear witness to the fact that you the oppressors have incarcerated the innocent witnesses of your crimes while allowing the murderers to roam free; but know this too, it is not just us the Leyla Tavassolis that have stood witness to your crimes, but history that will once again prove that the likes of you have never prevailed and it is a divine promise that this injustice will not last and is on its way out.

May those who oppress repent and see the light.

Zahra Rahnavard