How do you turn off compassion?

by Roja Bandari

My recent challenge has been trying to go about life as usual at the university and at home in California. Unfortunately this simple task is becoming more difficult every day because of things that are happening 7580 miles away in Tehran, Iran. For the past nine months I have been a part of the Iranian women's struggles for equality. Iranian women's demand for equality goes back over a hundred years but equality, especially in the law, has remained elusive to this day. In June of 2006, a movement called the <!-- D(["mb","\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we-change.org/english/spip.php?article20\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>Campaign for One Million Signatures\u003c/a\> was conceived that unified many of the Iranian women's rights groups that were formerly working separately. The campaign has a goal of collecting one million signatures to demand a change in the discriminatory laws. Signatures are collected face to face and with a discussion and a \n\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we4change.info/english/spip.php?article41\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>booklet\u003c/a\> that educates the reader about specific laws that have a negative effect on women's lives. As an Iranian living and studying in the US, my limited involvement has been an educational journey for me; I have been reading these women's\n\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we4change.info/english/spip.php?rubrique1\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\> writings\u003c/a\> and listening to their stories and trying to tell them to others.\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\n\nI have been moved and inspired by the amount of love, support and trust that is in this campaign. Activists in Iran can be easily marginalized by accusations of ties to western countries or to Iranian political groups that work against the Iranian government outside of Iran. It is understandable why many inside Iran are very cautious about any harmless stranger who offers them help or even solidarity. Despite this, my very first email asking about how I could help was replied with an open heart and open arms and I was touched by this accepting behavior which I later found was a general attitude of the campaign. I continued to have email contact with a few of the people who were more comfortable with email and English and who had some time. One of these women was Jelveh Javaheri. \n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>I like jelveh. I found her to be a very warm and kind girl. She is not very loud and you\nalmost don't expect someone so soft-spoken to be so bold and stubborn\nin continuing her path. Her articles are published on Campaign's website and they were among the first articles I read that touched my heart and compelled me to join the campaign. When she writes, there is a certain sorrow in her tone that makes you want to reach across the oceans and give her a big hug.  I translated \n",1] ); //--> Campaign for One Million Signatures was conceived that unified many of the Iranian women's rights groups that were formerly working separately. The campaign has a goal of collecting one million signatures to demand a change in the discriminatory laws. Signatures are collected face to face and with a discussion and a booklet that educates the reader about specific laws that have a negative effect on women's lives. As an Iranian living and studying in the US, my limited involvement has been an educational journey for me; I have been reading these women's writings and listening to their stories and trying to tell them to others.

I have been moved and inspired by the amount of love, support and trust that is in this campaign. Activists in Iran can be easily marginalized by accusations of ties to western countries or to Iranian political groups that work against the Iranian government outside of Iran. It is understandable why many inside Iran are very cautious about any harmless stranger who offers them help or even solidarity. Despite this, my very first email asking about how I could help was replied with an open heart and open arms and I was touched by this accepting behavior which I later found was a general attitude of the campaign. I continued to have email contact with a few of the people who were more comfortable with email and English and who had some time. One of these women was Jelveh Javaheri.

I like Jelveh. I found her to be a very warm and kind girl. She is not very loud and you almost don't expect someone so soft-spoken to be so bold and stubborn in continuing her path. Her articles are published on the Campaign's website and they were among the first articles I read that touched my heart and compelled me to join the campaign. When she writes, there is a certain sorrow in her tone that makes you want to reach across the oceans and give her a big hug.

I translated <!-- D(["mb","\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we4change.info/english/spip.php?article102\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>one of her articles\u003c/a\> to English but with my amateur translation skills, I don't know how much of this deep and sorrowful voice was successfully translated to English. In this article, Jelveh talked about her high school friend, Leila, who along with her mother, were being abused at home by Leila's father. Jelveh described that despite being a good student, Leila didn't get a chance to take the university entrance exams because she was locked up at home. In the end, Leila ended her own life. Jelveh talked about some other classmates from elementary to high school and their experiences with violence. \n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Each morning I check the campaign's website for new articles and news updates. This morning the news \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we4change.info/english/spip.php?article180\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>\n\nwasn't very pleasant\u003c/a\>; I found that Jelveh has been summoned to court and taken to the Evin prison. Her charges were disrupting public opinion, advertising against the system, and publishing lies. I have been going through a wide range of emotions; I went from disbelief to anger, to a spur of energy to do something, and now I feel a strange numbness. I'm so utterly sad and I'm surprised for feeling this way. I have never met Jelveh in person but I think about her as my friend. I struggle to go about life as normal when Jelveh is in jail for telling women's stories. How can one turn off compassion? How do you switch off friendship? And how do you kill love? These are things that fuel this campaign. Jelveh writes about women and their stories because she cannot ignore them; she can not switch it off and go about life as usual. Now Jelveh and other women like her are the ones in danger; the ones who face an even bigger and more abusive father who locks them up and beats them. There need to be others who stand up for these activists and tell their stories. \n",1] ); //--> one of her articles to English but with my amateur translation skills, I don't know how much of this deep and sorrowful voice was successfully translated to English. In this article, Jelveh talked about her high school friend, Leila, who along with her mother, were being abused at home by Leila's father. Jelveh described that despite being a good student, Leila didn't get a chance to take the university entrance exams because she was locked up at home. In the end, Leila ended her own life. Jelveh talked about some other classmates from elementary to high school and their experiences with violence.

Each morning I check the campaign's website for new articles and news updates. This morning the news wasn't very pleasant; I found that Jelveh has been summoned to court and taken to the Evin prison. Her charges were disrupting public opinion, advertising against the system, and publishing lies. I have been going through a wide range of emotions; I went from disbelief to anger, to a spur of energy to do something, and now I feel a strange numbness. I'm so utterly sad and I'm surprised for feeling this way. I have never met Jelveh in person but I think about her as my friend. I struggle to go about life as normal when Jelveh is in jail for telling women's stories. How can one turn off compassion? How do you switch off friendship? And how do you kill love? These are things that fuel this campaign. Jelveh writes about women and their stories because she cannot ignore them; she can not switch it off and go about life as usual. Now Jelveh and other women like her are the ones in danger; the ones who face an even bigger and more abusive father who locks them up and beats them. There is a need for others to stand up for these activists and tell their stories.<!-- D(["mb","\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cdiv class\u003d\"gmail_quote\"\>On Dec 1, 2007 1:57 PM, Jane Gabriel <\u003ca href\u003d\"mailto:jane.gabriel@opendemocracy.net\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>\njane.gabriel@opendemocracy.net\u003c/a\>> wrote:\u003cbr\>\u003cblockquote class\u003d\"gmail_quote\" style\u003d\"border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex\"\>\nHi Roja,\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>What awful news about Jelveh - please do write about her in the blog and we'll publish it Monday. I'll talk to Grace about the article too and see what we may do. \u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Your article was included in the "best of openDemocracy" twice weekly email which goes out to our 50,000 email subscribers, so it should get widely read. \n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>I've just this evening finished watching the film The Circle - so your campaign was much on my mind\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>best\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Jane\u003cdiv\>\u003cdiv\>\u003c/div\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003cdiv\>\u003cspan class\u003d\"gmail_quote\"\>On 12/1/07, \n\u003cb class\u003d\"gmail_sendername\"\>\nRoja B\u003c/b\> <\u003ca href\u003d\"mailto:roja.bandari@gmail.com\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>roja.bandari@gmail.com\u003c/a\>> wrote:\u003c/span\>\u003cblockquote class\u003d\"gmail_quote\" style\u003d\"border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex\"\>\n\n\n\nHi ,\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Yesterday at noon, another campaign member, Jelveh Javaheri, was summoned to court, questioned for a few hours and then arrested and taken to Evin prison. \u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Jelveh was one of the people who I have been corresponding with about the campaign. She is very nice, calm and strong.  Her articles have touched me greatly before and I translated one of her articles. In this article she spoke about one of her classmates who was being abused by her father and who eventually committed suicide. Here is that article:\n\u003cbr\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.we4change.info/english/spip.php?article102\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>http://www.we4change.info\u003cWBR\>/english/spip.php?article102\u003c/a\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Jelveh is a masters student in sociology and has been writing about women's rights in magazines and websites for a while. Her charges are disrupting public opinion, advertising against the system, and publishing lies in the campaign website. \n",1] ); //-->