Tamim Barghouti’s Account of Political Prison
Tamim Barghouti, Egyptian poet and researcher, presents an intriguing account of prison.
A video of him has been published on social media platforms in which he prepared this video in response to events in Iran.
In this video, Tamim Barghouti says: “Even children know that political prisons are not meant to imprison the prisoners inside them, but rather to imprison people outside the prison. A person who is not afraid is imprisoned so that those outside the prison become afraid. The real walls of the prison are the ones you see from outside the prison. The walls outside the prison are the effective part that has a political function, and the inner walls of the prison are ineffective for a person who is not afraid. For this reason, if a prisoner acts in a way that eliminates fear among the people through rebellion and disobedience, or through strikes, then the prison becomes ineffective and the prison is no longer a prison. Instead, it becomes a place for organizing fighters or demonstrations to bring people to the streets. The prison becomes a source and place of courage, not a place of fear; it becomes a call for rebellion and disobedience, not a call for surrender. When a prisoner rebels, he destroys the prison over the dictator’s head.”
The noteworthy issue is that if people outside the prison can understand the importance of this point, then they can render the function of political prison meaningless, and the person inside the prison can continue his political work.
If people outside the prison do not cooperate with prison guards, then the prison no longer means a prison, and the rebellion of prisoners leads to the suppression of the dictatorial regime.
