For hours I stare at pictures of young students who demand, “Release our friends!” and think about the road whose end is clear. I look at the pictures of my imprisoned friends: Dr. Keyvan Ansari, Abolfazl Jahandar, Saeed Derakhshandi, Majid Tavakkoli, Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban, Keyvan Rafei, Ali Farahbakhsh, Adnan Hassanpour, Hiva Boutimar, Mansour Osanlu, Yaghoub Salimi, Abbas Nazhand, Ghottam Reza Gholam Hosseini, Mahmoud Hozhabri, Hadi Kabiri; they all look at me though their honest smiles. They could have all opted to continue their studies and live their lives in comfort and without concern about the plight of people around them. I think about their nights in solitary confinement; about their interrogations; about their uncommitted crimes and false charges thrown at them by angry interrogators. I think about their sleepless nights; about their breath and the fear they must be feeling from the “idealogue brothers” who watch over them.

I think about the pain of their mothers who are anxiously awaiting their release; about their days on hunger strike and their weak and feeble voices over the phone which makes their families even more concerned.

Their memory exerts its weight on our conscience. We are all responsible for every second of their lives that is spent behind bars. History will convict anyone who participated in the physical and psychological torture of these young people as a ploy to coerce them into making confessions. These confessions have no value, neither for now nor for the future.

Our youth will be freed and the interrogators will still remain inside the caves, though they will continue to accuse human rights activists of espionage or treason and journalists of corruption in order to justify their actions.

The gates of prison will open up one day, just as the gates of no prison have stayed shut throughout history. They will return and the interrogators will suffocate under their heavy black masks. History will recognize these fighters in the path of democracy and freedom, even though right now our country is sick and in pain. Every day an event takes our breath away: a bunch is arrested, one commits suicide in prison, another is on hunger strike, one more is sent to jail. Newspapers are shut down and journalists lose their jobs. People are executed in public, in front of the eyes of little children. I do not know what is the impact of this on children who have seen these scenes.

Iran may be breathing heavily now, but it is still breathing. A bunch who wants Iran’s progress is breathing in jail. The gentlemen must know that this will not last forever. Undoubtedly, these nights will end one day. One day, the Iranian people will experience the sweet taste of freedom, justice and equality.