While Emadeddin Baghi has been transferred from prison to hospital, Mohammad Javad ‎Rooh has written a statement asking people not to worry about his lashing sentence, but ‎to think of Saeed Habibi and Emaddedin Baghi. ‎

Women’s rights activists who have also been sentenced to lashes reiterated this in a ‎different way: “We are still outside; think of those who are now in prison and far from ‎their families.” ‎

We all agree that Baghi’s condition is dangerous and that a tragedy is possible at any ‎time, in a manner similar to Ganji’s hunger strike, especially since we know that two ‎weeks ago, during his last visitation, Baghi had lost 20 kilograms. His daughter said he ‎had shrunk to half his size when she last visited him in the hospital. However, it is not ‎right to give up the attainment of one right in exchange for the protection of another right. ‎The attainment of one right does not nullify or take away from the priority of attaining ‎another right. ‎

Those two gentlemen have the right to be free. However, others – such as Mohammad ‎Javad Rooh and women’s rights activists – also have the right not to be lashed, and not to ‎be mentally and physically tortured. Even if they have committed a crime – granted that ‎that they are justly accused and convicted of that crime and the punishment is appropriate ‎‎– they have the right not be lashed and pay the fine, and not be imprisoned like Maryam ‎Hosseinkhah and Jelveh Javaheri. ‎

I recall the early reform years, when one of the first demands we discussed with the ‎judiciary was to stop passing violent verdicts such as lashing, at least for journalists and ‎intellectuals, and to hand down verdicts that are appropriate to their line of work. ‎Because the reformists’ victory was still fresh, and accepting reason was still the norm ‎not the exception, this reasonable demand was implemented immediately thanks to ‎efforts by the judiciary's pragmatic faction. The lashing verdicts were halted, even ‎though they remained part of the penal code. ‎

The life of the reform movement, however, was short. Another time came and more ‎violent verdicts were handed down. The source of both is the same place: hands that are ‎above the law. The result is, once again, lashing, flogging the human flesh, but in reality, ‎killing the human soul. One day the lashes come down on fragile bodies of women ‎activists, who want nothing other than equal rights, and one day they come down on ‎bodies of young men and women, who want nothing other than freedom to think and ‎write. ‎

So let us say: I and we are worried about everything, prison, lashing, torture, and most ‎importantly, the suppression of human soul, the jewel of creation. ‎