"Here, all the butterflies die in their cocoons because freedom is a crime."
(Hasti Hossein Panahi)
The day she heard about Mahsa Amini's death, her life changed forever! Fourteen-year-old Hasti Panahi, a young schoolgirl in the city of Dehgolan, took to the streets to protest during the "Woman, life, freedom," uprising in Iran. Besides having a passion for writing and poetry, Hasti also has a burning passion for freedom. She thought it was her duty to join her classmates and take to the streets for the rights of all Iranian women.
However, November 9, 2022, would be Hasti's "day from hell,"a day that would alter the course for the rest of her life. That traumatic day is still very hazy and unclear for Hasti. All she can recall is saying to her mother, Samira, "Mom, If I don't go, if dad, uncle, and aunt don't go then who will? It is our duty to go to the streets."
Hasti went out on the streets distributing leaflets with the slogan "Woman, life, freedom" printed on them. She placed them on cars and was seen tearing up pictures of the Supreme Leader. Unaware to Hasti, she was being filmed by one of the CCTV cameras of a local bank. The bank manager secured the video footage and gave it to the Ministry of Intelligence.
Within a few hours, plainclothes security agents from the Ministry of Intelligence went to Hasti's school and interrogated her alone in a room without the presence and knowledge of her parents. Terrified, Hasti managed to escape from the agents and hurried toward her school bus. The agents pursued her, captured her, and dragged her back to school. Hasti feared that she would be raped and once again managed to escape after a lengthy interrogation.
A few hours later, Hasti's parents were notified to immediately come to the local hospital. According to the security forces, Hasti had fallen off the bus and suffered a fractured skull. Doctors confirmed that Hasti had suffered a severe injury to the brain but immediately questioned the validity of the story. There were no cuts, bruises, or broken bones anywhere else on her body. If Hasti had fallen off the bus as the agents claimed, then why were there no other injuries to her body? Her parents immediately realized what had happened. Hasti had been beaten severely during the interrogations and they were trying to cover up what really happened.
The next six months were "hell on earth" for Samira, Hasti's mother. Hasti was comatose. Day and night, she watched her daughter slip away in the ICU. The doctors didn't give her much hope. The bleeding on her brain was not subsiding and would probably leave her in a vegetative state. The only procedure that could give Hasti a chance to survive was a delicate surgery to place a shunt and drain the cerebral fluid from around her brain.
After the surgery, Samira went into Hasti's room spraying perfume, sitting by her bedside, talking to her, and spent all night long, praying to God and pleading with him to return her daughter to her. "Please God, awaken Hasti and return my daughter to me."
During this agonizing time, the security agents harassed Samira and urged her to disconnect Hasti from the life-saving machines. They tried to tell her, "That's not Hasti breathing, it's the machine." Day after day, they harassed and discouraged her, forbidding any visitors to see Hasti and pointing out the enormous hospital costs of keeping her alive. But Samira refused to listen to them and instead held out hope for a miracle.
The miracle that Samira had prayed for took place on March 19, 2023, exactly six months after that traumatic day in November. Hasti began moving the finger of her left hand. and opened her eyes. She asked for a drink of water. She had finally awakened! Overwhelmed with joy, Samira quickly wet her lips with some cool water and began recording the miraculous event on her cell phone. Hasti managed to raise her hand giving the sign of victory to her mother.
Even though Hasti had emerged from the coma, half of her body was paralyzed and she still couldn't speak. A month later she was released from the hospital but the Panahi family continued to be harassed and warned by the Ministry of Intelligence to not speak to media or else they would be arrested. Unable to cope with the stress of the situation, Hasti and her family decided to leave their homeland. With the help of the "Munich Circle" group, they migrated to Germany in February 2024 where Hasti can now receive excellent rehabilitative care to begin walking and speaking again.
Before her traumatic brain injury, Hasti wrote about the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish girl murdered by security forces, It was Mahsa that motivated her to protest out in the streets. Reflecting on her tragic death, Hasti wrote, "Here, all the butterflies die in their cocoons because freedom is a crime."
The Islamic Republic of Iran desperately tried to silence Hasti Panahi for speaking out for freedom. They sincerely believed that she would never recover from her brain injury, but God had other plans. This evil regime could not thwart the plan of God for Hasti's life. This brave young Iranian girl just turned sixteen and is determined to walk again without help and speak fluently. She defied death by the grace of God and plans on pursuing her skills as a writer. Hasti Hossein Panahi is Iran's miracle child. She is a true survivor in a country where freedom is a crime.
