Firefly Director Dan Gorman recently took part in a rolling 24 hour fast for 3 young American anti-war activists currently being held in Iran. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained by Iran on July 31, 2009, while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Sarah has since been released on humanitarian health grounds, but Shane and Josh remain in the Evin prison. Read Dan’s piece here:
I’m in the final hours of a 24 hour fast in solidarity with Shane Bauer and his friend Josh Fattal, who have been held in Iran for almost 2 years without charge, after they were picked up on the Iran/Iraq border by Iranian police. Yesterday was Shane’s 29th birthday.
I met Shane and his now fiancée Sarah Shourd in Damascus, when I was there in 2009. We met through mutual friends and as it turned out we lived in the same neighbourhood we met a number of times. I was instantly impressed with both of them. Sarah was working with the Iraqi Students Project, helping young Iraqis who had their education interrupted by the war get scholorships to study in the USA. Shane was working on a number of different projects relating to human rights. The last time I saw them was when we were invited around to their place for one of their legendary soup parties. They were living in Urbaeen, a conservative district in the North of Damascus. We climbed up in the mini-bus and then had to do the final stint to their house on foot, as the roads got too steep for traffic to be able to make it. We had an excellent evening, we talked about the solidarity work both Shane and Sarah had done and the places they’d been, from Yemen to Darfur via Iraq and now Syria. And we ate some delicious soup. I found the whole visit, and our brief friendship, inspiring. At the time I was beginning to become more involved in the Middle East, and hoping to begin arranging exchanges and various forms of cultural solidarity work. Meeting Shane and Sarah went a long way to helping me realize this was something I wanted to do, and ideally wanted to work alongside them on. I heard about their detention two months later, along with their friend Josh, whom I sadly hadn’t had the chance to meet. I was shocked, but felt that since they were so active politically, that this would have some impact on their case, that Iran would see that these were not the pawns they had been hoping for. However it seems this hasn’t been the case. Sarah was released late last year on humanitarian health grounds, and has been campaigning tirelessly for Shane and Josh’s release since then.
Over the course of the past 24 hours a number of my friends and colleagues were also arrested in Damascus as they took part in a peaceful demonstration calling for unity. I fast for them also, and for all political prisoners.
Since the arrest of Shane, Josh and Sarah I’ve been involved in a number of projects developing the ideas we talked about that night in Urbaeen. They are passionate, inspiring human rights activists. I wish they could have been involved in them. I’m going to break my fast with the same soup we ate that night. The next time I eat it will be on their release. Soon.
To read more about their case and get involved in support visit: http://freethehikers.org/
To hear Sarah Shourd speaking to Amnesty International about their case visit:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprTxPYc9Hw
To see more of Shane Bauer’s work visit: http://www.shanebauer.net/
To see more of Josh Fattal’s work visit: http://freethehikers.org/about-the-hikers/about-the-hikers-main/about-josh-fattal/
To join the campaign on Facebook visit: http://www.facebook.com/FreetheHikers
