Change for Equality:
A night of solidarity was held for Esha Momeni on
January 24, 2009. Esha Momeni is a member of the
Campaign from California who was arrested on October 15,
2008 while on a visit to Iran during which she conducted
film interviews with women’s rights activists involved
in the Campaign. She is now free on bail, but faces a
travel ban and cannot leave Iran to return to the US.
Her friends and classmates in the US who
are awaiting her return, organized a night of support
for Esha at the University of Southern California (USC).
The following is a talk given at this event by Elahe
Amani, a women’s rights activists and Campaign
supporter.
Intolerance for
Academic Inquiry and Intellectual Curiosity in Iran
Good evening and Thank you for
organizing this event tonight. I hope we welcome Esha
back to Los Angles soon…
I wanted to start by reading a poem
written by Langston Hughes, the acclaimed African
American poet :
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow
I was in the train from Toronto to New
York when I got an e-mail on my blackberry that Esha was
arrested.
While I was shocked about this short
news, Once more, I had to hold fast to my dream and not
let it loose- The dream of living in a society where
academic freedom and intellectual inquiry are not
undermined as “national security threat”. My first
encounter with the lack of academic freedom was in Fall
of 1970, my first semester at Tehran University where
one of the students in my class was arrested for the
sole reason of challenging the lack of freedom of speech
and expression at the university. She was expelled from
university.
Esha, an Iranian American young woman
went to Iran to work on her thesis despite the fact that
her adviser at CSUN alerted her about the risk of
traveling to Iran.
Esha’s keen intellectual curiosity,
artistic passion and drive seeking truth led her to take
the trip to Iran. CSUN President Jolene Koester made a
well pointed comment that "Anyone who values knowledge
and the role of academic inquiry in shedding light on
the human condition should be concerned."
I met Esha when the California members
of the "One Million Signatures Campaign" were planning
to have a booth at the Iranian Cultural festival,
Mehregan, in Orange County, California. She came across
as a kind and mindful person, a talented, bright and
proud of her Iranian cultural heritage. I learned from
her friends that she played the Tar, studied graphic
design at Azad University of Tehran and believed in the
power of art as a medium to empower women and children.
While a student at Tehran Azad University, she taught
theater to young children at Ameneh orphanage. Esha has
a great passion for peace and humanity and her interest
in gender equality comes (or is derived) from her
personal experience and the challenges that women are
experiencing in Iran.
For her Master’s thesis, Esha hoped to
make a documentary capturing the stories of young women
involved in the "One Million Signatures Campaign" and
communicate to her academic community a rather complete
and complex image of Iranian women. She wrote a blog
post reflecting on her feelings about her experience
collecting signatures for the One Million Signatures
Campaign at Mehregan Festival in Orange County
California
The unexpected arrest of Esha Momeni was
not an isolated case. Many Iranian women and their male
allies who support the eradication of all the
discriminatory laws in Iran, who strive to put an end to
stoning and other forms of state sponsored violence
against women, who are defending human rights and
dignity for all in Iran, have been arrested in an
ascending pace particularly in the last couple years.
The recent closure of the Iran Human Rights Defender’s
Office and harassment of Shirin Ebadi, which made
international headlines are also part of the recent wave
of pressure that the right activists are experiencing.
The campaign for equality is one of the most inspiring
women’s movement in today’s world. For the first time, a
diverse and inclusive movement has been shaped to
exercise their civil rights and responsibilities and
claim their space in public and private domain. These
young women protest peacefully on the ground and in
cyber space demanding their dignity. As Langston Hughes,
African American poet once said :
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course
Tomorrow is another day,
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead
I cannot live on tomorrow‘s bread
Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted in a great need
I live here , too
I want freedom
Just as you
In a society that an independent and
peaceful movement for changing the discriminatory laws
against women is being framed as a "National Security
Threat", young women like Esha with a passion for peace,
equity and equality are entering an unsafe zone. The
young and inspired people are indeed an asset to our
troubled world. Their intellectual curiosity, academic
inquiry, passion and energy are the source of hope for
our perplexed world which is being polarized by the
forces of religious fundamentalism, globalization and
militarization. It is the responsibility of each and
every one of us in academic communities around the world
and community at large to protect their right for
exploring, educating and communicating in a better
world.
The reality is that when democracy and
respect for human rights and dignity is being
undermined, creating an environment that encourages the
spirit of academic inquiry and stimulates intellectual
curiosity which is the foundation of academic
achievement is equally being undermined. Human dignity,
academic freedom and an encouraging environment for
intellectual inquiry was a dream of my generation which
has not been fulfilled and in the words of Langston
Hughes, it has been deferred.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over—
Like a syrupy sweet
May be it just sags
Like a heavy load
Or does it explode?
Esha’s travel ban, is merely a
reflection of intolerance for academic inquiry and
intellectual curiosity in Iran. Voltaire was right when
he said "It is dangerous to be right when the government
is wrong"
