This candle is dying out, but its voice will not. Today, Sunday, July 10, 2005, exactly 30 days have passed since I started my hunger strike. In two phases of hunger strike (11 days in late May, and 30 days since June 11) my weight has reduced from 170 pounds to 121 pounds, which is a loss of 49 pounds in 41 days. Many inside and outside the country ask why I have gone on hunger strike and why I am trying to reach legitimate ends through self-destruction. Is it not true that practical rationality demands that the ends and the means to those ends be in proportion with each other? Is it not true that theoretic rationality demands that for all claims (opinions and beliefs) suitable reasons should be offered? Is my action consistent with practical and theoretic rationality? Am I not considered a madman by intellectuals and liberals and human rights defenders? Here I shall try, despite the extreme physical weakness that has completely worn me out, to share my views clearly with everyone.

The Crime of Dissent: A person who defends human rights and democracy via free expression, and fights authoritarian systems through peaceful means, is called a dissident. Freedom of expression is a common goal of all dissidents. In ideological systems, dissidents challenge the ideology of the system by offering rival models. Their only weapon is moral courage in exposing the violations of human rights and the tyranny of the rulers. Wherever human rights are violated and dictatorship and tyranny prevail, and an ideology is there to back these two up, courageous dissidents will appear and despite the hardships oppose this process boldly. If this definition is correct, then given the history of my activities and what I have said and written, I am considered a dissident who is in jail for his dissent. …

I have stressed many times before that the ruling sultanist system of Iran is an undemocratic system. Unelected lifetime leader is at odds with democracy. His power does not derive from the people, but rather he is claimed to have been appointed by God to rule over the people. He is not a regular person like all other human beings; his gap with ordinary people is the gap between the shepherd and the herd.

Struggle for Human Rights: Human rights form a set of necessary minimum criteria for an individual to be able to lead a life in dignity and honor. …

The connection between democracy and human rights is one of the problems of contemporary philosophy. Michael Freeman says: “The theory of democracy asks: who should rule? and answers: people; the theory of human rights asks: How should the rulers behave? and replies: They must respect the human rights of all individuals. Democracy is a collective concept and democratic governments may violate human rights of the individual. On the other hand, the concept of human rights is created to limit the power of governments, and to the extent that it puts the governments under public control, it has a democratic character. However, human rights limit the legitimate power of all governments, including democratic governments.”

… The author of these lines has exposed the cases of human rights violations in Iran several times. Here I point out a few examples of widespread human rights violations in Iran:

* In the past few years, about 100 journals were banned all at one time and journalists were sent to prison, following the explicit and public speech of Mr. Khamenei claiming that the press has become the base of the enemy. The judiciary officials have announced formally in interviews that they have persecuted the press following the words of the Leader. This is the meaning of freedom of expression in the sultanist regime. After years of hard work and keeping journalists in solitary confinement, they were unable to discover even a single enemy base. But the judiciary system never asked Mr. Khamenei to submit his evidence to the court, or documents showing that the press are the base of the enemy, and now that it has become clear that that claim was false, the Leader is not prosecuted for trampling on the right of the press and journalists.

* That is, the Leader is not equal to other people. He can accuse citizens with no evidence whatsoever without being prosecuted…

* Assassinating the opposition outside the country by “Foreign Servicemen” was another part of the project dubbed “healing through murder.”

* The brutal attack on the dorms of Tehran University and widespread arrests of beaten and oppressed students is another instance of human rights violation in Iran. Nowadays, the students are not even permitted to hold a simple commemoration in one of the universities for the occasion. Sweeping political oppression is implemented in order to create a single-voiced society. In such a society only one voice must be heard: the voice of the Leader. There must be only one speaker and the rest should be listeners.

* My pen is unable to describe the horrors that occurred in the pollsters’ case. In my short leave [May 30 to June 11, 2005] I had a meeting with bloggers. They said that they were all taken to a bathroom naked, and were filmed. Saeed Mortazavi had told them: “One day while you are walking in the street a car may hit you and you’ll die. There are many accidents every day; it would be just one of them.”

… Mr. Khamenei has proclaimed the country’s agenda to be the pursuit of social justice and fight against social corruption, not freedom and democracy. When the real opponents of structural changes and fundamental reforms start singing the motto of social justice, it is clear that they are not sincere in their claims. Is it possible to consider human beings (women and men, Muslims and non-Muslims, clergies and non-clergies, etc.) not equal from a legal standpoint and still claim social justice? … Only free media, brave journalists and independent civil institutions are able to reveal and disclose the corruption of those in charge. Tyrannical regimes distribute poverty, corruption and prostitution in place of social justice. …

Human experience has shown that corruption is much more probable in absolutist totalitarian systems, where public opinion and the media are not allowed to disclose instances of corruption, than it is in other systems. Minimal government reduces corruption…

The Project of Heroism and Myth-Formation: … The issue at hand has nothing not to do with heroism. The issue is the following: An individual has been thrown in jail for years due to his dissenting opinions and views, but they haven’t stopped at this unfair, unjust and illegitimate act, and have forbidden him communication by telephone and medical treatment; they say: “You must write letters of repentance and criticize and reject all your previous beliefs, otherwise not only will there be no improvement in your conditions, but after the current sentence is over we will keep you in prison for many years to come by setting up new trials.” Is resisting this unfair process heroism? Do my critics invite me to write letters of repentance? The goal of the system is to break and destroy me. Although I have been broken physically during these years, I have been trying not to break mentally and spiritually, and to say “no” to the ruling tyrants. A “no” that is costing me my life. This body is on the verge of complete deterioration, but since I believe in the conjectures I have made (all my opinions), I see no reason to deny their truth. It is a trivial fact that all these conjectures must be tested with the sword of falsification. Commitment to “critical rationality” is different from “giving up our beliefs by force of prison.”

The political regime of a society is a dress cut to fit the build of its people. If the people prefer a tyrannical political system and think it will answer their needs, no one can prevent them from getting what they have chosen. The people can choose a dictatorship or a democracy, to raise the flag of democracy or to put on the veil of dictatorship. Is being a hero for people who compromise with and tolerate tyrants worth anything, to induce one to sacrifice his life for its sake? “The people, who obey dictators and who are at the same time aware of the redundancy of these same dictators one way or the other. The way they mediate between these conflicting viewpoints is by assuming that they themselves are the cruel rulers and oppressors.”

Prison has not trapped me in illusions. Dejection, hopelessness, despair, isolation, escape from politics and abandoning public arena, going after life and its pleasures, all have become prevalent in our society today. I have never been under the illusion that someone (people) will be awaiting me outside of prison. Not only that, but my closest friends do not accept my thoughts, talks, writings, and attitudes. But none of these facts obliges me to bow before the tyrants so that they may release me from prison. Life in slavery is not worth a dime in my eyes. In the same way that some allow themselves the option to cooperate with tyrants, or to remain silent before human rights violations, I too have the option to oppose the tyrants and to say “no,” in a loud voice, to them and to their attitudes. …

Although the dictators have managed to bring my body under their domination, since they have not succeeded in taking away my spirit and my thought, and in making them theirs forever, they can’t stand my face and so crave for my blood.

Rejecting Sultanism, the Pre-Condition for Demanding Democracy: Today, the opposition groups in the Middle East have opted for the strategy of fighting personal rulers. Egyptians demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, Syrians, of Bashar Asad, Libyans, of Moammar Gadhafi, Saudis, of Malek Fahd, etc. In the Republic of Azerbaijan democrats demand that Ilham Aliev, and in Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov should resign. Dictators for life are under attack everywhere. This is a time when democracy has worldwide appeal and lifetime rule is not at all defensible and should be sent to the archives of history. …

This candle is about to die out. But this voice will not be silenced. This is the voice of peaceful life, tolerating the other, love for humanity, self-sacrifice for people, seeking truth, seeking freedom, demand for democracy, respecting the opponents, welcoming different lifestyles, separation of the state and the civil society, separation of the private sphere and the public sphere, separation of religion and state, equality of all humans, rationality, federalism within a democratic Iran, rejecting violence. … This candle is about to die out, but this voice will raise louder voices in its wake.

Akbar Ganji
Evin Prison
July 10, 2005