The following is the translation, by SMCCDI [Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran], of the
astonishing and unprecedented Public Letter of Dr. Mohammad Maleki, head of the University to the students and scholars
of Iran.
Maleki will issue this letter on August 6th and following the issuance, by several students member of the Islamic
Student associations, of a public letter calling on UN's Secretary General. These students, who are usually "better"
treated than their arrested secularist colleagues, denounced, in their letter to which Maleki makes reference, part of
the brutal investigative methods used against their imprisoned colleagues and have asked for the UN's intervention.
Anyone reading Maleki's letter, entitled "A drop is the sea, if it's with the sea", must note that he was among those
1979 National-Religious revolutionaries who promoted the idea of a religious political system and who will promote,
later, the useless and baseless theory of "reforms from within".
But despite his past and actual beliefs, his letter, shall lift off any shadow of doubt on any remaining legitimacy of
the theocratic system and shall be considered as a document pointing out to some small parts of the existing pressures
and repressive actions used against the Iranian students.
Its translation is as follows:
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In the name of Liberty, Knowledge and Justice
A drop is the sea, if it's with the sea
Knowledgeable students, my dear children,
I read the letters of your sufferings addressed to Kofi Anan and the nation of Iran. As I am a drop that?s within the
sea, I want to talk to you now about "sorrow." Because I know, and very well I know, how heavy a sorrow is weighing down
your patient hearts. "The sorrow for your brothers and sisters who have unjustly become caught behind the bars in jails.
Jails that have become trysting places for noble broad-minded.
Yes, the brothers and sisters who not just yesterday or today, rather for decades, have been caught behind those bars
and have held on to the promise with their lives. And if your friends and comrades have been sent into prison cells from
the class rooms in these days, based on the void belief that the fire that burns within their souls for the love of the
country can be extinguished, ignoring that the flames of that fire are unyielding and can not be put down, And if your
brothers and sisters have been caught under the torture of the oppressors and the guardians of the government of the
"Supreme Leader" these days, let no grief in your hearts; For they are and have remained steadfast with their covenant;
Because the "Student Movement" that is critical of the rulers has chosen the war against the unjust and struggle for
democracy and its realization as its duty. Congratulations on their choice.
My children, dear students, when I see that you are worried about your fellow students; when you suffer from the
knowledge of the fate of a lady reporter in a torture chamber; when you hear from the sidelines what they do to the male
or female students in those rooms; When you have heard from your elders what exactly torture confession extraction in
the horrific jail houses of the government of the "Supreme Leader" mean, you should be worried. You are justified to be
worried because I know it and I know it well. I know, and I know very well. I know prison, torture, interrogation,
exorcism, insult and belittling, the interrogator, the court, the religious ruler, the judge, judgment, and etc. in the
"Religious Government" and the "Ruling Religion" very well.
I know. I know very well how it burns to your core every time the cable strikes the soles of your feet or any other part
of your body.
I know. I know very well how your personality and you whole existence is stirred and disturbed when you are taken blind
folded into the interrogation room and the guard closes the door, you can't see anywhere or anybody, the interrogators
hard slap throws you off your balance and you hit the wall hard and you spill on the floor and writhe in pain, you hear
the voice of the interrogator who grabs your head by the hair and pulls you up to your feet as he shouts obscenities
saying "DON'T PLAY DEAD YOU PIECE OF SULLEN DIRT. SIT ON THE CHAIR AND ANSWER ME."
I know. I know very well what nightly interrogations mean and how the tired and worried prisoners are treated by the
interrogators in the middle of nights.
I know. I know very well, if you happen to be young and inexperienced, how they can frighten you and trick you into
writing and admitting whatever they say.
I know. I know very well what "repentant making" means and how they make a repentant out of an innocent prisoner as they
make him confess to thousands of sins he did not commit.
I know. I know very well what the mind altering drugs, which they inject into prisoners, can do to your brain, mind, and
senses. To the point that you start believing that you have been a spy in the service of Imperialism and "World
Arrogance (USA)" since birth!
I know. I know very well what kind of a place the cell block 209 is; where due to overcrowding many are packed in there
and what a problem it is to use the toilet. I know the things that can destroy your body and soul can happen to you
there if you are there by yourself. And then they throw a woman whose husband has been executed in the cell next to
yours with her two years old child. They take away the woman in the morning while the child is still asleep for
"interrogation." When the innocent jailed child wakes up and doesn't see his mom he cries for few minutes and comes out
of the cell towards the back of your cell. He claws on your cell door asking for his mother and you can see his feet
through the opening at the bottom of the door where you receive your food and you can hear his moaning and crying. There
is nothing you can do but to swallow your rage over the lump of hatred in your throat that is choking you and wipe away
your tears with your sleeves. You endure a few burning hours of that feeling until you hear the child?s mother limping
towards her cell, moaning and holding on to the end of a stick that is in the prison guard?s hand. Then you understand
what happened to that woman in the interrogation.
I know. I know very well the difference between the "white" torture and the "black" torture. I know everything that
happened in those 20 years (1981-2001) and whatever else that is still happening in the jail cells of the "Religious
Government", and those are now the cause of your worries.
I know. I know very well?
My children, dear students:
Let me confess. My generation fought against the dictator and the fascist instead of fighting dictatorship and fascism
for it thought it can reach liberty and justice by just changing the garb and the name of the ruler.
My generation was after making a hero not after making the people. My generation thought the country would be our
homeland again once the Shah was in his burial shroud. My generation?s motto was not death to despotism; rather it was
death to the despot.
And we saw and witnessed the results of that erroneous motto. The "King?s government" just transformed into the "Supreme
Leader?s government" and several generations, including yours, have been paying the penalty for that historic mistake
ever since.
Now that after many ups and downs and a 15-20 year break the "Student Movement" has come to the conclusion that a true
democratic system can not be pulled out of the belly of a dictatorship, and time for putting hopes on superficial
changes and deceiving the people by the name of "Reforms" has ended, and that by painting a new façade over the decayed
structure it can no longer be held up, and now that you have diagnosed the roots of the pain, you have the right to
shout: "We no longer have anything to say to the ruling system and treat the system?s submission to the just
expectations of the Iranian nation as an illusion and we saw that they give no regard to our just demands. The answer to
our lawful actions became unlawful detentions and the result of our human demands became inhuman repression." (An
excerpt from the letter of the Islamic Students Associations to the Iranian nation. Dated Wednesday 23 July 2003)
And in these days that you dear ones, "as the pioneers of the Democratic Movement," treat reliance on just one
individual and "Hero making" and "Icon producing" as the wrong way of doing things, and know yourselves to be
responsible and accountable before the Iranian nation, as on the Third Article of your declaration you have stated to
remain steadfast and to ask all those who claim of democracy, rule of law, civil society, pursuit of justice, and
rejection of foreign interference etc? to announce not once, but many times over again that: "Whereas the fate of every
nation isn't decided by anything but their own policies and contemplations, we recognize the nation of Iran as the
rulers of their own destiny and we are of the conviction that, except by reliance on the people?s vote and the wisdom of
the whole population, no kind of government will be acceptable." (Article 3 of the declaration in the letter dated 23
July 2003)
Dear students, scholars,
Today your sacred mission is to publicize and plan the "Return to the Wisdom of the Whole." Strive in this path and fear
not its expenses. For if the rulers do not submit to it, they will loose this last chance for a civil and peaceful
transformation and will undoubtedly encounter the storm of nation?s wrath in tomorrow that isn't too far. The same way
that the "Royal Governance" didn't heed the advice of the advisers and the nation was forced to revolt and take action,
certainly much more than a name and memory won't be left of the "government of the Supreme Leader" in the near future if
the repression of the students, journalists, and the scholars continues. And in conclusion, I assure you that as an
Iranian, a citizen, and a scholar, I will remain by the side of my student children till my last breath.
And now a message to the so-called "friends:"
Why do you chastise me?
I was like a drop of water in a motionless pond, rotting and turning into slime.
There was a sound, A boulder broke of the mountain and fell into that pond.
I was hurled into a turbulent river that was heading for the sea.
I wanted to become of the sea. I wanted to wash my body, which still held the wounds and pus that the henchmen had
inflicted on it, in the sea.
Doesn't the "Sea" cure and cleanse?
I want to become clean and then die in the heart of the sea.
Like a swan, I want to die alone in a lonely corner of the sea.
Why do you chastise me?
I want to be by, and part of millions of drops of water.
I'd like to be a drop of water, in the sea, a stormy sea raging with waves.
I hate rotting and sliming and then dying.
Pity such existence , such death.
A drop is the sea, if it's with the sea Then why do you chastise me? Why?
With salutations to all students and freedom lovers who are enduring jail and torture.
Tehran, 6 August 2003
Dr. Mohammad Maleki
END....
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Comments/Nazariat: smccdi@daneshjoo.org
Website: www.daneshjoo.org or www.iranstudents.org Tel: +1 (972) 504-6864 Fax: +1 (972) 491-9866
"Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran" / "Komite e Hamahangui e Jonbesh e Daneshjoo-i Baraye
Democracy dar Iran"