Editors’ Note: On Thursday, August 20, the Guardian newspaper published an open letter signed by leading scholars, activists, and intellectuals in North America, some of whom were previously political prisoners or remain incarcerated. Addressed to political prisoners in Iran in commemoration of the mass executions that took place in August 1988, the letter provoked a flurry of responses over two days that criticized its timing (in the midst of an ongoing illegal war of aggression on Iran as the US’s military approaches defeat) and its framing (which seems to equate Iranian domestic repression with the imperial aggression of the US and Israel).
This response, drafted by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi and originally posted on Facebook, models an alternative approach to solidarity. He served over three years in prison in Iran due to his political activities in the 1980s. In this letter, he portrays political prisoners as political actors rather than as passive victims. In a comment under the original post critical of the original letter’s portrayal of the signatories as saviors of helpless Iranian victims, he writes, “I never understood myself or any of my other comrades during my imprisonment in those terms. We, they, are not victims. We, they, are political actors.” The Guardian letter criticizes the Islamic Republic for “hollow anti-imperialism.” By contrast, Ghamari-Tabrizi frames anti-imperialism as one of the legacies of the 1979 Revolution, underscoring the price that political prisoners in Iran have paid “for demanding the extension of that struggle to the realization of the unfulfilled promises of that revolution: respect for human dignity, social justice, and freedom.” Ghamari- Tabrizi is the author of numerous books on Iranian politics and most recently was professor and chair of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
The recent “Open Letter” to Iran’s political prisoners has renewed the conversation about how “the Left” could declare solidarity with the Iranian people during the time of war. I have composed this letter as an example of how that politics could be articulated and practiced.
An (Alternative) Open Letter to Iran’s Political Prisoners
We write this letter with great admiration for your courage and in solidarity with your struggle for social justice and human dignity in your home country of Iran. We know that your struggle is the continuation of a long tradition in Iranian history, particularly during the period that culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah’s regime. We know that the struggle for justice always continues, even after the collapse of one regime and the establishment of another. Your example of commitment to an emancipatory politics is one to which all of us need to aspire.
We write this letter from a place that has made your struggle more complicated by many folds. The 1979 Revolution left wounded the influence of American imperialism in the region. It disrupted Zionist expansionist ambitions and redrew the political map of the Middle East. We reside in a country in which our successive governments have tried by a variety of means to destabilize yours and undermine its sovereignty. Decades of draconian sanctions, blockades, assassinations, and finally all-out war against your state and your people have made your resistance to injustice and repression highly intricate and much more perilous. We fully understand that the American/Israeli aggression against Iran has created hardships that are unprecedented since the Iran-Iraq War in the early 1980s. This hardship is particularly felt in prisons. Wartime logic means even less transparency and more executions, and the stifling of legal procedures, no matter how problematic and tenuous they already are.
You showed awe-inspiring dignity and humanity last year after the Israelis attacked Evin prison. They thought that the prisoners would take advantage of the destruction and free themselves. Instead, you saw the wounded and those under the rubble, the guards, the infirmary nurses and doctors, the visitors, the social workers and stayed to rescue them rather than escaping. We read the news thousands of miles away and honored your profound decency and selflessness.
The resistance of your country, the state, and the people against imperialist domination and Zionist expansionism is one of the most cherished achievements of the Iranian revolution. You are a part of that resistance, and you are paying the price for demanding the extension of that struggle to the realization of the unfulfilled promises of the revolution: respect for human dignity, social justice, and freedom. Do not allow the imperialists and Zionists to instrumentalize your just causes in order to delegitimize the anti-imperialist pulse of this revolution. You might hear that the American government is concerned about the situation of human rights in Iran or that the Israelis want to bring freedom to your country. As many of you have already explained publicly, they want to instrumentalize your struggle to advance their own domination.
We trust that you know how to organize and advance your own emancipatory politics. This letter is just a note to remind you that we see you and deeply respect your dedication to social justice. We need to learn from your courage and do our best to stop our own government from the atrocities that it commits in our names. We need to show the world and you that it is our responsibility to stop our own government’s imperialist savagery, which has taken millions of lives around the world and now devastates your country and hinders your struggles in your own society. We need to do our best to mobilize our forces against our own government to end this and all other imperialist wars of aggression. We can only hope that stopping this war will put you in a better position to hold your own government accountable for the way it treats its own citizens.
In Solidarity!