Shahid

For a better world

In every Iranian town, you'll see portraits of young men who died in the Iran-Iraq war lining the main roads. These men are sons of the town who left their families, friends, and lives to fight in a war which they barely understood. But a combatant's understanding of the conflict has never been a prerequisite for waging wars. They had ideals and dreams enough to uproot them, enough to make some of them walk across minefields, in the hopes of reaching a better place. These men have now returned home in figurative form as Shahids, Martyrs of the town.

On my bus ride from Yazd to Esfahan, I met a fellow traveler who was working for the UNRWA and we spent the 5 hour long bus ride talking about the refugee situation in Palestine. During that bus ride, I heard a story of Israeli bulldozers, of concrete walls not unlike that of the Warsaw Ghetto, of families separated and displaced, of third generation refugees who cling on tightly to photographs of a home that they have never seen with their own eyes nor step foot into; holding on to a dream which they believe is their birthright. His story, although not totally unheard of, is a side of the Israeli-Palestinan conflict that we do not see very often. Gradual displacement and oppression will never be as sensational as a suicide bombing. As the Israelis hammer Hamas with F16 air-strikes on an unprecedented scale, sowing the seeds for future retaliatory suicide and rocket attacks, it dawned upon me that war is waged not so much for land but for the fulfillment of dreams. There is no need for an understanding of the conflict. Besides, dreams are never logical or rational. We should at least try to understand that.

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one"