LARA GEWHERİ

Mahabad- Today marks the 13th anniversary of the executions of Kurdish political prisoners named Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alamhouli and Mehdi Eslamian in Iran’s Evin prison.

They were executed by the Iranian regime on May 9, 2010. Their executions sparked anger in four parts of Kurdistan and the failure to deliver their dead bodies to the families was also strongly condemned. After their executions, some of their family members were arrested and four political activists were buried in a place far from the cemetery of Muslims. Although 13 years have passed, their families do not know where their loved ones were buried. Shirin Alamhouli, who has become a symbol of freedom and resistance against the regime, is the second woman executed by the Iranian regime after the execution of Leyla Qasim.

In an interview with NuJINHA, Baran A., an activist in Mahabad, told us the atmosphere in the city after the executions of five Kurdish political activists. “I was a child when they were executed. I remember that there were many soldiers in the streets and the people holding protests across the city. Two days before the executions, Kurdish activists were summoned and threatened. Everyone was talking about Shirin Alamhouli and Farzad Kamangar so I wanted to learn more about the five people and why they had been executed. I understood myself and my Kurdish identity better by reading the letters and stories of these people.”

‘They are the symbol of resistance’

We also spoke to a writer from Sardasht, who asked us not to write her name. “Death is not always the end; it can sometimes be a start for struggles. The massacres committed by dictatorship regimes and patriarchal systems have shown us this. Every political prisoner, who is executed, becomes a symbol of resistance for all freedom fighters. The five Kurdish political prisoners, who were executed in 2010, are the symbol of resistance now. Their struggle left a legacy for the next generations. Although no one knows where they were buried, many people follow in their footsteps today.”

Letters of Shirin Alamhouli

Before being executed, Kurdish political prisoner Shirin Alamhouli, who is the second Kurdish woman executed by the Iranian regime, wrote a letter telling of the pressures and tortures she experienced in prison. Her letter read:

“I have been imprisoned for about three years. Three hard years. Behind the bars of Evin prison, I was held in an isolated place for two years. Why should I be imprisoned or executed? Is it because I am a Kurd? So, I’d say, ‘I was born a Kurd and I have experienced much deprivation for being a Kurd. My language is Kurdish, but I am not allowed to speak, read and study in my mother tongue. And they do not let me write in my own language. They tell me to ‘deny my identity’. I would say if I do so, I would deny myself. The honorable judge, Mr. interrogator, when you were interrogating me, I couldn’t even speak your language. I have learned Farsi from my friends over the past two years in prison. But you asked questions in your own language and you put me on trial and issued my sentence. This is while I did not understand what was going on around me, and I could not defend myself.

The torture you used against me has become my nightmare. I am suffering day and night because of the torture I was subjected to. I was hit on the head and injured in the head. Some days, I experience bad headaches. My headaches are so severe that I do not understand what is going on. I suffer for hours and finally, my nose bleeds due to severe pain. Then I come to and return to normal conditions. When I arrived in prison, my hair was black. Now in my third year, I see that every day a new lock of my hair turns white.”

On May 9, 2010, Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alamhouli and Mehdi Eslamian were executed in Evin prison.