Zia Nabavi’s Latest Handwritten Notes from Prison

Translation by Siavosh Jalili, Persian2English
Written by Seyed Ziaoldin (Zia) Nabavi

“He who marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” Dean William Inge.

PART 1.1. Humankind has traveled a long, uneven, and diverse path in creating culture and civilization. In this journey, it has created an enormous amount of knowledge, value, and law preexisting to new comers born and thrown into this collection. On the other hand, as human beings, in order to be civilized and cultured, we have to create a brief, intense, and complete version of humankind’s journey throughout our lives by adapting to the process of socialization. This personal journey is how we become a human being who is in sync with society and the time. It is important to note two points about the end result of the socialization process:

[1) People live in diverse environments, so the end result will differ as well.

2) A person is an active player in their socialization, so he or she cannot simply conform to norms and customs passively. In other words, people are not just identical molds and templates. An individual's environment and creative abilities affect how she or he adapts to norms and customs.]
People, due to their special traits- be it physical, behavioral, personality, moral, etc.- usually have the ability to get creative on their path. That is why in every era, society, and family, [we have witnessed] people leading diverse lifestyles. Among those with distinctive styles, my favourite person is someone who wishes to travel the same path as humankind’s [by] standing on their own feet and relying on their own reasoning and experience.

[My favourite people] re-evaluate, rank and rate all the knowledge they have acquired. However, living like this is sometimes dangerous, laborious, and even stupid. It is laborious because one has to ponder everything repeatedly. It is dangerous because there is no distinct ending point. It is stupid because, at times, people simply and strangely ignore the most prominent accomplishments of humankind. Nevertheless, some people can only endure this lifestyle- and if they are questioned about [their choice], they would answer that [a life of thinking, reflecting, and re-thinking] is worth all the labour and troubles that come with it.

PART 1.2. Politics has been an attractive concept that has cast a peculiar and particular charm on my life since May 1997 [the landslide victory of reformist Mohammad Khatami in the Iranian Presidential election]. I always wanted to find the equivalent of politics in my personal life, and be able to define it under my personal life experience. During my years as a university student, and in the context of my activism within the Islamic Student Association, I discovered an opportunity to realize this experience, define it within my personal experiences, and somehow form an independent political view. Through these activities, I was able to understand the importance of many concepts I had studied and read in the past, and reconsidered many concepts that I had accepted. Moreover, I was able to conceptualize some of my personal experiences in the public realm.

Once before my arrest, I tried to offer a theoretical summary of the results of my experience. The outcome of this effort was an article titled, “The Critique of political-philosophical presumptions of political activism”. Now, when I reflect on that work, it does not satisfy me at all. The problem is, that along with politics, I am also interested in other subjects- like philosophy, psychology, sociology, ontology, and literature- and some of these subjects have a more important place in my mind than politics.

On the other hand, all these concepts and domains have always been conglomerated in my mind- I don’t look at them separately, I take a synthetic approach . In fact, I am attempting to use my experiences (shaped partly by a collection of events, relationships, studies, deeds, thoughts, emotions, etc.) to attain my own understanding of these concepts and find their common points and differences and sort them out in my mind. This task has become my greatest mental preoccupation- and [it appears that] I am never meant to reach a point of satisfaction in this regard. However, the summary of my practical experience within my student activism became possible through the Advocacy Council for the Right to Education (ACRE). Unlike my theoretical experience, I am fully satisfied with the practical experience [I have gained through the ACRE]. I must state that, without displaying any modesty, the ACRE is the one task I have undertaken [that I can defend the best].

I have heard from my friends numerous times that my name is now more known not because of my student activities but rather because of the letters I have written from prison. This does not please me at all. To be honest, I don’t dislike my writings, but they have never become dear and respectable to me. In general, I do not think that a person’s writings or words should become a source of self-respect for that person. In fact, it is possible that if I read this text to you in a few months, I would find parts of it laughable, and revise and change the text entirely. However, when I take a look back at my experience in the ACRE, there has been no point in my activities that I would want to correct, except one thing: perhaps I would have decided not to found the ACRE in the first place, because I now know the consequence for this action is 10 years in prison exile.

PART 1.3. In this part, I would like to discuss the impact prison experience has had on my political perspectives [which has now changed]. I felt the need to write on this subject after brief talks I had with friends before imprisonment. Some of my friends referred to the paradigm shift I had previously written about. They were either critical of these changes or wanted a more detailed explanation. Since deeper and broader explanation requires more time, I decided to write it down in a way that may be useful to others as well.

With respect to politics, I personally think that my cognitive and mental structure has not undergone any effective changes. In prison, I have the opportunity to think more about the fundamental concepts which politics stands on, and better understand and grasp the significance of these concepts.

Part 2 will be published shortly.