Freedom After The Tragedy

Siamak Pourzand is an Iranian artist, journalist and thinker who put his bright way of thinking and reforming ideas on paper for 30 years, writing several cultural commentary articles and critical articles about the leadership of the Islamic government of Iran. For past decades Siamak Pourzand had been under house arrest by the government of Iran, and his human rights were taken away from him. He was banned from many simple rights such as traveling, and most importantly visiting his wife and daughters who sought freedom and had moved to Canada for the same political reasons as their father. The reason for his several arrests and finally a long term house arrest according to the Government of Iran is Siamak Pourzand's articles, which were critical of policies of the Iranian government and informed the public of some news--for example, the chain murder that was made by the intelligence agency of Iran in 1998--that was not mentioned in any other source.

For many long days and years he did not see his family.  In the year 2005, his younger daughter Azadeh, whose name in Farsi translates to a person who demands freedom, could not tolerate the gap between herself and her father and took a high risk and flew to Iran to see him.



The picture below shows the first encounter of Siamak Pourzand's daughter, Azadeh, with her dad after many years of living far from each other.  Their arms, wrapped around each other tightly, symbolize the love between father and daughter, a love, which could not be severed; no matter how long and how far apart they lived from each others.  



On April 29, 2011 Siamak Pourzand found his own way to freedom by jumping out window of the sixth floor of his apartment, the same window he had used to linger outside and contemplate his ideas about reform and his writing. Even though his body fell from a great height, his soul rose to the highest level a human soul can, to continue living eternally free.