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Hunger Striker Tells His Family Goodbye

September 29, 2017
IranWire
2 min read
Hunger Striker Tells His Family Goodbye

Soheil Arabi, who faces the death penalty for posts he shared on Facebook, has written a will and said goodbye to his family after going on hunger strike. 

Arabi has been sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Mohammad. He insists the offending posts were not written by him, and that he simply shared someone else’s post. Despite receiving widespread international condemnation, Iran’s supreme court upheld the penalty in November 2014.

In addition to the death sentence, authorities handed down a three-year prison sentence for “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “propaganda against the state.” 

Revolutionary Guards arrested Arabi in November 2013 and his wife in January 2014. They released his wife soon after her arrest, but Arabi remained in solitary confinement. 

He has gone on hunger strike more than once to protest against the treatment of his family, which has faced intimidation. 

Seven days ago, Arabi started another hunger strike. On September 28, he wrote to his wife and daughter, telling them goodbye. 

 

So long, life... 

My dear Nastaran [Arabi’s wife], believe me that I did what I could to build a new life, but... 

Please tell Rojana [his daughter] that her father was jailed because of his ideas.

I loved you both and now that I am writing my will, I have no wealth to leave to you. Please forgive me that I am leaving you alone. But I’ve been in prison for 1,388 days and the last eight days have been intolerable.

I tolerated these intolerable nights hoping that my interrogators and the judges would think about what they were doing. If they had any conscience, they’d free me and would imprison the real criminals. They would let us live together so that I could embrace you and tell Rojana stories. I can’t bear such atrocities any longer. I’m tired of fighting. No one is helping me to haunt the oppressors. A Soheil who is caged and cannot do anything is no different from a dead man.

I am leaving you but I have no doubt that one day we will be free of oppressors. Then when you read my case you will have no doubt that I did not deserve even one day in prison.

Oppression will end and one day the unjust interrogators and judges will be tried and our land will no longer be run by charlatans.

To the authorities: I am one step away from death. Sugar: 50; blood pressure: 5 over 6; weight 66; bleeding of the stomach...

You ignored my lawful demands so at least satisfy my last wish after my death: Bury me in Room 1 of Ward 350. Soon it will become a museum and every Rojana will remember us proudly.

Those who love me shouldn’t cry for me. They should listen to Edith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose” to remember me.

Never let them torture someone else for his beliefs.

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