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'My father is a political prisoner facing an imminent threat to his life in prison in Iran'
Describing
a person’s life is never easy, especially when that person is someone you
cherish. Ali Moezi is my father, he is a political prisoner in Iran, and I fear
losing him with each passing second, Hijrat Moezi wrote as it published in
World Post
Before
I was even born, my father experienced the mullah’s prisons. In 1980, when the
theocratic dictatorship took control of Iran, my father was arrested and
tortured. He had been among those who stood in opposition to their tyrannical
rule, and paid the price with several years of torture in the regime’s prisons.
My
father was educated at the University of Karaj in agricultural engineering, and
could have worked towards building up his homeland; Instead, he has spent
years, off and on, behind bars. The theocracy has made it such that everyone
finds himself leading a life unsuitable to their vocation: our scholars rest
imprisoned while thieves and criminals are in government.
I
recall asking him, when I was a child,What happened to your knee?’ to which
he responded, 'it was hit by a bullet.' Only when I was older did I learn that
he participated in peaceful demonstrations in Tehran in June1981and during
his escape, he was shot and then subjected to hours of painstaking torture.At
the time, my father would have been the same age I am now, 26The whip marks
left by his torturers can still be seen on the soles of his feet and his back.
Throughout
my childhood, the thought of my parents’ arrest was my greatest nightmare. But
one day, I myself decided to stand up against this government. I moved to Camp
Ashraf and left my country for Iraq, where thousands of refugees and Iranian
dissidents lived in a place that was our only hope for freedom. I remember, on
my last day in Iran, looking into my father’s eyes and asking if I’d ever see
him again...
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