The phone rings. The number is Lili's. I think maybe she wants to congratulate the "eid" [Persian New Year held every year in March 21]. But my friend's worry transcends anything relating to the New Year or congratulations. She says, "Have you heard about Khadijeh?"
"No! What happened?" Every bad thought, from accident to all types of diseases, jumps to my head - every thought, other than that she has been handcuffed and taken from her home to prison.
Not because that would be strange, no. We are used to it. But to do it to a woman like Khadijeh, who was always a symbol of peace and reason for me, is hard to fathom. When my friend hangs up, I can't stop thinking: "Why?"
Why a woman like Khadijeh Moghaddam? During the violent suppression of the 15 June, 2006 demonstration, she told calmly to a green-wearing man who was insulting her, "Shame on you, I am your mother's age." The man, of course, continued to shout the worst insults at her.
Since the evening, when I heard the news, up to the middle of the night, when I am writing these lines, the lovely image of Khadijeh Moghaddam has not left my mind. I know her from a few years ago, when she was a stubborn woman fighting against the destruction of the environment, something that she still cares about.
When on February 9, 2006, Tehran's municipality cut 12 thousand trees in "Lavizan" to build a highway, that very morning, Khadijeh Moghaddam and a number of her colleagues headed to Lavizan, carrying signs and tents. They stayed in the Lavizan woods to prevent further cuts.
I review the memories of these past years. In a meeting of women's rights activists, after the usual greetings, she said, "Aren't you throwing a party?" I asked, "For what?" She responded, "We have an initiative for all people who are throwing parties in their homes which benefits both them and a group of women in need of help." Then, with a lot of energy, she began describing the initiative, devised by her and her friends, to help disadvantaged women cook and sell food at low cost to people.
Khadijeh Moghaddam's volunteer activism and motherly support for the One Million Signatures Campaign, and her initiative to set up the Mothers' Committee of the campaign along with some of the more experienced campaigners, brought her a kind of fame as a supportive mother figure backing the young campaigners. Before that all, however, Khadijeh was known as a peace-loving and anti-war woman, a mother supporting her land and all its children.
Khadijeh Moghaddam was taken to jail this morning in handcuffs and asked to post bail. An hour ago, when I was speaking with her family, they told the story of how she told the officers, "For what crime do I need to post bail? I haven't committed any crimes."
Bail and handcuffs and arrest for a women who, three months ago, was doing all she could to save the lives of several people convicted to death, seems like a joke.
