This is a small part of a compilation of Farzad Kamangar’s letters from behind bars at Evin prison - Iran, Tehran, ward 209 - the political prisoners ward, where many people have been tortured, raped, killed, murdered or even where many kids were born, distorted, displaced and traumatised from an unnatural separation.

This compilation has now been turned into a book (in Farsi only) 

Farzad Kamangar is a Kurdish teacher who after 4 years of imprisonment, was hanged in early 2010. His crime, was the love he had for his student, the love he had for human beings and their rights.

He kept a vision alive by writing stories and letters to various people, including his students, his mother and even his own prison guard.

enquire about the book, even just a page of it sends shivers down your spine.. to imagine a person writing with this much love and passion from behind the walls of a cell. It is really moving, it is really inspiring, he was not afraid of death, he loved, even his own murderers.

you can get information on how to buy the hard copy of this book from the email above.. all the money will go to his mother who is also an amazing woman..

I have translated a small part of one of his letters. I hope you enjoy

in a part of the letter to his prison guard (page 39 of the pdf book) he writes:

 

“don’t take away my pen and paper, leave it so I can write a lullaby for the children of my land, a lullaby full of hope, stories about unknown hero’s, of their bravery and courage, of the love between teachers and their students. I want to write, so I can speak with my people, from within this cell. from right here, within this confinement, I can be free, do you understand? I know they have made you be wary, to be hateful of light, of beauty, of thoughtfulness and of love. Don’t be afraid, come into my cell, be a guest of honour at my torn and shredded sofra, and witness for yourself, how every night, I am a host to all my students, from right here within this cell, how I tell them a story each night. But you are not allowed to see are you? Not allowed to hear this, are you? First you must learn how to love, you must become a being more than a human, you must be on this side of the gate to understand me.

 

Look at me and recognize the difference between you and I... I still draw the hands of my beloved and her beautiful eyes on the walls of this cell, and I hold her fingers in my hands and feel the warmth of life from the portrayal of her touch, and imagine the anticipation and hope that pours from her eyes.

 

But you, oh you with a baton in hand, you break the fingers I drew on the wall and poke at the eyes I imagined. You turn these walls black. Your world will forever remain dark like a prison, and the ray of light will forever bother you.

 

It has been months I have waited to see the sky, to see stars, to see the trail of a shooting star stretch across the sky and rip through the belly of darkness. But you have been living in darkness for years, you have chosen to live without stars. Do you know what it feels like to miss a star? Do you know what it means to have a sky which forever remains dark?

 

This time when I come back to ward 209, come into my cell, I have wishes for you, a prayer, but not the colour of your prayers which is endlessly filled with burning flames and a fear of ending in hell. My wish for you is full of smiles, hope and love. Come into my cell and let me tell you of the secret to a smile.. A smile filled with dignity, a smile full of glory, even at the door step of death, upon execution, with a noose awaiting.

 

I know that I will come to ward 209 again, and hear you shout abuse at me with every bit of your hateful energy, and my heart will once again burn for you, with compassion for the dark world they have built around you, the existence they have created for you.  Me however, I will return to ward 209, still as a teacher holding the smile of my students upon my lips.”

 

A teacher sentenced to death: Farzad Kamangar

The infection patients hospital ward of Rajai-shahr prison, Karaj city 

30.12.2008