Sepideh Gholian: In Iran, its poets sing the song of freedom in the streets and march toward bullets in hope of a new era

Sepideh Gholian, a political prisoner in Evin Prison, wrote in a letter that reached VOA: "I send you greetings from a land where the value and dignity of thought must be sought more than anywhere else in the struggle of tyrants to silence its writers and poets." In this letter, she writes: "From the bullet that pierced the heart of Mirzadeh Eshqi, a prominent Constitutional poet, a century ago, to the fork that silenced the mouth of Bakhtash Abtin, a poet and writer who won the American PEN award, the prisons and torture chambers of Iran's tyrannical governments have never allowed the absence of our writers to weigh heavily on the gallows. From the slaughter of more than 80 writers, poets, and translators in the chain murders to years of imprisonment and torture for a translation that was never published." Ms. Gholian continues in her letter: "Yes, in this land still, and now more than ever, the publication of any book is a sign of a crack in the glass of the imaginary world of oppression and rigidity of the tyrants who seek a path to infinity, and you know such an effort is deserving of fire for them." This imprisoned political activist added: "But my dear ones, let me tell you that despite all this, here the poets still sing the song of freedom in the streets and hand in hand, they march toward bullets in hope of a new era, and still, their writers from within the prisons are the resonant voice of revolution. Just this time, do not forget that the tree bears the name of its women! Yes! These days and in this land, the value and dignity of women are found not in not stepping into hell but in their arrest from everyone, especially their poets and writers." She concluded her letter: "Until we traverse each layer and reach a paradise where women, life, and freedom are shouted in thousands of voices and words in the era of freedom, we become the narrators of the blood that rises, and we hope to soon read our free song together in our books." Sepideh Gholian, a civil activist, chanted "Khamenei is Zahak, we will bury you under the ground" after being released from Evin Prison on March 15, 2023, without wearing a mandatory hijab, and was re-arrested shortly after chanting this slogan. On April 11, she sent a text from inside the prison that reached VOA, emphasizing the "scripted and staged" nature of the courts in Iran, calling the Islamic Republic an "Islamic execution government" that holds "humble discoverers of the spring and protesters against tyranny" as hostages. In her letter, she expressed her wish for the overthrow of the "Zahak of the time" and emphasized that she would not participate in any court. Sepideh Gholian was sentenced to two years in prison for the slogan "Khamenei is Zahak, we will bury you under the ground." The spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's judiciary stated that Sepideh Gholian had committed an insult.