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Poland, Warsaw, 2015

Libera visited prominent Persian poet Houshang Ebtehaj at his apartment in Germany. Ebtehaj said he senses a coming revolution in Iran, which will be led by the young, especially women, in the fight for their rights. Ebtehaj stood up heavily from his chair and recited an excerpt from his poem Liberty! with the energy of a 20-year-old.


O joy!

O liberty!

O joy of liberty!

When you return,

What shall I do

With this melancholy heart?

Our sorrow is heavy,

Our hearts are bleeding,

Blood spurts from our heads to our feet,

From head to foot we are wounded,

From head to foot we are bloody,

From head to foot we are all pain.

O liberty!

Are you

Coming

With chains?


Libera, shaken by the encounter, after returning to Poland took a photo under the title View of Freedom Street. The poet Ebtehaj died in August 2022, at the age of 94. A month later, the revolution in Iran broke out. Young people took to the streets after customs police killed Mahsa Amini for improperly wearing a hijab. That revolution continues on the streets of Iran to this day. More than 500 young women and men are known to have been killed in it so far.