I was relaxing in the break room at Chick Fil A just a few minutes before the beginning of my shift, when I received a voice message on Telegram. I noticed it was from my Iranian friend, Mahdis whom I hadn't heard from in a very long time. I immediately opened it up to listen to the message and was completely unprepared for what I was about to hear. In a trembling voice racked with tears and desperation, Mahdis pleaded with me from the other side of the world:
"Randy. Please be our
voice. They're killing us! They're killing both young and old. Please be
our voice!"
Chills ran up and down my spine.
Tears filled my eyes. I was gripped by an intense feeling of urgency. I banged
my fist down on the table in frustration. The lives of my Iranian friends were
in danger and I wanted to be there right now to stand by their side and fight
with them! For the last ten days, brave young women joined by men, in more than
110 cities across Iran, had taken to the streets, outraged over the senseless
and brutal death of Mahsa Amini. The Morality Police had arrested her on
September 13 for not wearing her hijab properly and showing too much hair. They
explained to her brother that she was being transported to a detention center
in Tehran to be re-educated on the Islamic dress code. A few hours later she
was pronounced "brain dead" at a hospital, lapsing into a coma.
The official explanation was that Mahsa had suffered a heart attack, but
bystanders had witnessed her being beaten in the head as she was being forced
into a police van.
The cruel and unjust death of Mahsa Amini had sparked a revolution
with thousands of Iranian men and women taking to the streets outraged and
demanding freedom from a dictatorship government. I had been very busy on my
Facebook page, posting stories and videos in support for my dear Iranian
friends. I had also reported on their plight and struggles for freedom on
my blog talk radio program, "The Cross in the Desert." I immediately
sent back a voice message assuring Mahdis that I would be her voice and the
voice of all Iranians. I pleaded with her to be careful and told her that I
would be praying for her safety.
"Randy, please be our voice."
I cannot adequately express into words, the awesome responsibility
of being their voice. It is the passion and the driving force of my everyday
life. It is the reason that I write their stories in my self-published books. I
will never forget the incredible story that Mahdis shared with me a few
years earlier right before the Persian New Year in Iran. She recalled a
frightening incident one day at school when she was just a little girl. The
teacher had sternly warned all the girls in the class that they had better
wear their hijabs according to Islamic law or if not, that on
judgment day, "Allah would dangle them over the fires of hell by
their hair!"
Growing up in Iran, as a child, this was the picture of God that
Mahdis had been taught. God was not a god of mercy or love, but rather a god of
fear and retribution that could not wait to punish his
disobedient children. You could hear in her trembling voice, that same
little girl, now terrified and pleading with me to support them.
I bowed my head in prayer for Mahdis and remembered the awful
story that I had read the day before about the tragic death of another young
Iranian girl. Sixteen-year-old, Nika Shakarami, had bravely joined the protest
in the streets and never returned home. Ten days later, her parents were told
to come and see her lifeless body in the morgue. Nika's nose had been smashed
in and her skull crushed. A few days earlier, twenty-two-year old Hadis
Najafi is seen on a video tying back her blonde hair in protest and marching
down the streets of Karaj only to be shot six times and killed for the crime of
wanting freedom. As I remembered these horrifying stories, I was gripped with
the fear of that same tragedy happening to my dear friend Mahdis.
I
could not bear the thought of that tragedy for another second, so I
reluctantly got up from the chair to begin my job.
There is nothing more important to me in my life than being a
voice for my Iranian friends. I'm not doing this for money, fame, or
popularity. I do it because I love them. I do it because the Bible
admonishes me to be their voice for freedom.
"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who
are unfortunate and defenseless. Open your mouth, judge righteously and
administer justice for the afflicted and needy."
(Proverbs 31:8-9)
Being silent in the face of injustice, cruelty, and the slaughter
of human life, is an egregious sin that lacks any sense of humanity or
compassion. It was the great German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who
courageously defended the church during World War II and was unafraid to
stand up against Hitler. He rebuked the weak and afraid, proclaiming,
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not
hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
If Bonhoeffer were still alive today,
I believe he would raise an accusing voice toward the mainstream media for
their silence and ignorance when it comes to the human rights of the
Iranian people. They are willingly silent in the face of evil! We need a
prophetic voice that will be unafraid to confront the evil of silence and
to confront the self-centered governments of this world who have economic
ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, lining their pockets with profits
while ignoring their desperate cries. The Biden Administration is a prime
example of sinful appeasement for the sake of a legacy.
They are willing to sit down at the table
across from this terrorist regime and renegotiate a nuclear deal instead
of rebuking them for their oppressive policies against innocent people, and
speaking up for human rights. President Biden wants to have a legacy
behind his name, like Barak Obama did in 2015, when he gave
billions of dollars of sanction relief money to the Iranian
government that was spent on furthering terrorism in the Middle East.
I refuse to be silent in the face of evil. Right after work,
I messaged Mahdis back on Telegram, promising her that I will never back down
and never give up until she can walk down the streets of Tehran one day without
fear under a new government of freedom and democracy.
I want you to hear the desperate voice of Mahdis with me! I want
you to feel the fear, the panic, and frustration tearing at her soul. It
is only when we together raise our voices and bring awareness and condemn the
evil, that Iranians have any hope for a bright future, a new tomorrow, where
the shackles and chains of a dictatorship are finally torn away from their
hearts and minds.
Speak up for those that cannot speak for themselves. It is our humanitarian duty. It is our calling.
