Kirkepiscatoid: How Neda connected me to Hamid

How Neda connected me to Hamid

(WARNING: Graphic news footage)

The word on Daily Kos is that the young woman shot to death in Tehran in this video was named Neda--"Voice." Her death certainly speaks volumes in a country where women have no voice. Her father is begging, in Farsi, for her to open her eyes. Unfortunately, they are open with the stare of death.

I got this link from my former student Hamid.

Hamid is here in the US, making a good life for himself. One sister lives in Australia. But the bulk of the rest of his relatives still live in Tehran.

When he sent me the e-mail, he had added, "I can not take it anymore.... this could have been my sister....."

Hamid has not heard from any of his relatives in Iran for a day or so now. He reported to me that the government "has been shooting down the cellphone towers, internet, and landline services." I know some people are still getting out on the ground on Twitter.

I have known half a dozen or so Iranian medical students well over the years. I know this much--1979 is still in their minds if they were alive then, or it is in their family's collective minds if they were too young to remember "The Revolution", as the all call it. The politics don't matter--they remember the bloodshed. They remember death. They remember the loss of their relatives.

I'll admit something...there is a part of me when some country in the Middle East starts up, goes, "Oh, hell, not again," and can have a tendency to be dismissive. But I can't be dismissive of this. Neda has seen to it. So has Hamid, who was one of my favorite medical students over the years, and who I know is praying his socks off for God to be with his family in these hours of fear in Tehran. It doesn't matter to me that his prayers are Muslim ones. I just know that in these next few days, my prayers will mix with his. If you have a chance, please remember Hamid's family over the next few days.

2 comments:

Leonard said... June 20, 2009 at 11:00:00 PM CDT: It doesn't matter to me that his prayers are Muslim ones. I just know that in these next few days, my prayers will mix with his. If you have a chance, please remember Hamid's family over the next few days.¨ K

Yes, I will.

I can´t look at the video. I´ve seen too much death recently...it doesn´t matter to me either how his prayers are said and done...I´m relieved to be FREE in so many ways...prayers for all the terrified and brutalized innocents of Iran and beyond.

Lord hear my prayer
Kirkepiscatoid said... June 21, 2009 at 1:39:00 AM CDT: Yes, Leonardo, you have been closer to it than the rest of us...and I've been praying for you and your neighbors, too.

It is interesting that almost all the Iranians I know, 1979 is a placeholder in time, when they are talking about something that happened in their family timeline. You hear phrases like, "Well, now, when so-and-so had her first baby, that was before the Revolution," etc. These events will become a time holder, I'm sure.

When Hamid was my student, he was here during 9/11. It was a scary time for three of my students in particular. I was not sure how well my 95% white town was going to react to those who were a little um, "browner". He was such a class act. He had a way of confronting the inevitable anti-Muslim flip and thoughtless comments spurred on by places like Faux News. I am sure our Lord was very proud of him. I know I was. He was a quiet and gentle ambassador for the beauty he saw in his own religion. Such a rare quality in a young man.

He tried (unsuccessfully) to bring one of his sisters to the US but at least she is in Australia now. Everyone else, though, is stil in Tehran and still at risk.

On this Father's day, I think about something else Hamid told me--how many families have lost loved ones from the decades of bloodshed there, and how that translates into so many people there who grow up without a father. I imiagine there are very few families in Iran who have not been touched by these losses.