Iran Document: Majid Tavakoli "The Will of My Nation Led to Victory"

Negar Irani provides an English translation of a letter released on Sunday by the detained student leader Majid Tavakoli.

Tavakoli, who ended a hunger strike after he was transferred out of solitary confinement (he had been sent there for criticising a representative of Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi), provides the background:

Earlier, I sent a short message through my family to all those who supported me. At the time, I was physically weak and due to the lack of communication inside the prison, I was unaware of the widespread and extensive nature of the support for my situation. It is with great gratitude and humility that I therefore decided to express my appreciation in a second letter.

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I would like to begin by expressing my happiness, gratitude and deep appreciation to the great nation of Iran. I am thrilled to have been born in a country where the desire for freedom and humanity is filled with the essential qualities of nobility, strength, and power. This great spirit is a source of light, against the masters of tyranny who conspire through the night, invalidating and washing out their oppression and intimidation.


I went from hunger strike in solitary confinement to witnessing the compassion, empathy, and the victorious will of the people of my nation. It has made me look back at the difficulties and bitterness of those days with happiness and pride. The level of sympathy and support expressed by the Green people of my nation has left me at a loss for words.

It is with tears of joy that I humbly address the grand people of Iran - tears of joy that express my immense gratitude for their sympathy, kindness and solidarity. I humbly thank them for their continued desire for freedom and their humanity and for proving once again that they will never leave their friends alone.

I would like to once again thank every prisoner for solidarity and for speaking with one voice. I want them to know that we will always be in this together. I would like to thank all the leaders who proved that they are noble mothers and fathers of the Green movement. I would like to thank all mothers who have imprisoned children and all those who have lost their spouse, child, or parent to this cause. I would like to thank all those mothers who have gone beyond their role as wives and mothers to political prisoners and have become the champions of the Green ideals of our nation during a time of such intense oppression and intimidation. I would like to thank the noble young girls of my nation who were the cause of my mother's tears of joy. They have given me the greatest gift of all, to know what it feels like to have sisters of my own. I would like to thank all my brothers, the proud young boys of my nation who stood tall and proved that they are all Majid and that Majid will never be alone.

My gratitude for the students of our nation cannot be expressed too much. I would like to thank them once again and I am for ever humbled by their kindness and support. I would also like to thank the security and administrative personnel at the prison and the hospital for the support and sympathy they showed towards me. I thank them for turning their back on those who have abandoned humanity and are so determined to teach a lesson that, in the process, they neglect the rights of all prisoners.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank my family and in particular my mother whom together with my father, have been my Green role models, and taught me as a child the importance of strength, courage, and honesty and continue to do so today.

It is only befitting that the month of June be referred to as the people's month. I would like to allow myself to think of this incident as a large victory. A victory for the solidarity and sympathy shown by the people. A victory for the dynamic media and the effective spreading of the news. A victory for the people who, regardless of their pain and difficulties, remembered each other, and stood together with one voice. And finally a victory for the media that was not intimidated, shattering a hundred degrees of censorship.

I am joyful that this evil tyranny was revealed. I am joyful that the advocates of human rights made it possible for the cries of the Iranian nation for justice to be heard by the world and international institutions. I am grateful and happy to know that the slightest news, such as my transfer from the general ward to solitary confinement, my hunger strike, deteriorating physical condition, internal bleeding, transfer to Taleghani hospital and back to Evin were all reported with such speed, proving that the walls of censorship are crumbling around us. All this only further demonstrates the greatness of the independent and free media and freedom-seeking reporters and messengers of my nation.

This victory and solidarity was a lesson for our future. It taught us that if there is a will, and if we want something together, then it will happen. Tyranny cannot hide its real face for ever. It will eventually retreat under the pressure of the people's demands and desires.

I would like to once again express my gratitude and congratulate the Green people of my nation.

Khordad 9, 1389 (30 May 2010)

Majid Tavakoli
Evin Prison, Hall 3 Section 7