[-empyre-] live stream with protests in Mexico

[Fereshteh Vaziri]

Hello everybody, 

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to write here now, but I read what Anna wrote about identification with the victims of violence all around the world and I asked myself, can we really identify with them? During this period of terror and violence in Iraq, Syria and Afganistan, I have always tried to put myself in their place, to imagine their situation, but it is not so easy. The psychological pressure is so immense that no one can bear it. When my Iranian facebook friends wrote about the acid attacks on women in Iran, when I saw the faces of these women, I couldn't sympathized with them. Not that I was indifferent or apathetic, but the feelings of fear, hopelness and hatred were so great that I felt paralyzed. As a woman, I have experienced the religious violence in Iran; I have experienced the feeling of humilation and helplessness in a country with dispotic islamic rules. When I hear about these things again the trauma is revived. I can' t
 sleep; I have nightmares; I feel depressed, and I am unable to run my normal life. Therefore, I tell myself: "you should stop that; you should keep the flames of hope somewhere in your heart." Then I think of women militia of Kobani, who are resisting the reactionary forces and the hope returns for a while.  However, it dies again and helplessness prevails me. The everlasting question in my mind is this: why can't we play any roles in the whole political situation in the world? Why are we just the victims of violent policies and acts. I come from a region of crises, of violence, of religious dogmatism, but there are many people in the middle east who want to live in peace; there are many people who think differently and want to practice their religion in their privacy and without violence; there are many people who don't believe in religion. I try to be a speaker for these people, altgough I konw that my tiny voice is nothing in
 comparison with the clamour of the mass media. However I can't identify with them; I am too safe in my apartment in Germany. How long? I don't know. No one can answer this question when the Sharia police walks in the street of a city in Germany, when the Salifists stand in the city centers of many German cities, propagating reading qoran. 

fereshteh
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