“Mohammad Najafi”: Ashura is an Uprising Against Corrupt Religious Government
“Mohammad Najafi” released a message from Evin Prison with the content “Ashura is an uprising against corrupt religious government.”
Mohammad Najafi is a human rights activist and lawyer detained in ward 4 of Evin Prison. He has been arrested multiple times for his nonviolent actions and for following up on the condition of imprisoned protesters. Mr. Najafi has now issued a message in response to forced mourning ceremonies on the occasion of Ashura and such mourning practices, in which he speaks about the true Ashura.
Mohammad Najafi wrote in this message: “A hero whose waist does not bend under the gallows, will his lips open to speak the truth? Does he know that the pen is heavier than the sword? Does he know that our pain will not be cured by mourning and food? As a student of teachers of freedom, must I personally pay the price of my lesson with blood?
Rose water is sprinkled on our heads, moment by moment fruit juice and cake rain down on us, offerings greater than our need. What a comfortable Ashura! Real Ashuras are all bloodstained! Ashura is not about grasping chains, it is about breaking chains. Tearing apart chains! Ashura is an uprising against corrupt religious government. Everywhere I look, Yazid is nowhere to be found. Perhaps the oppressor has dressed in the garments of the oppressed. Perhaps it is from the absence of Yazid that we strike our own heads with daggers. The most important place is the entrance to the shrine, a place where in the crowd and noise and incense smoke, truth has been lost. A place where iron and man wielded their last force. A place where taking the microphone from the mourning singer was as impossible as taking water from the Euphrates. Was the goal of Muharram the shrine? Who entrusted the claim of their right to the severed hand of Abbas? Who did not delegate the uprising for justice to the savior of the world? An imam who has not come for centuries and perhaps will not come for another century. You have the right; if you take it, it is a right to be taken, especially in Iran.”
Mohammad Najafi’s remarks concerning Ashura, which he has described as an uprising against corrupt religious government, have penned another call that on the first anniversary of the revolutionary uprising and the day of Arbaeen, another revolution against the Islamic Republic government will be demanded by the people.
