UC students must unite to free American hikers from hostage imprisonment
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 18, 2010 11:43 p.m.
Submitted by: Arezou Massoumi
On July 31, 2009, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were enjoying a recreational hike in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan when Iranian forces captured them.
After suffering 410 days in solitary confinement, Sarah Shourd was released. Grievously, her fiancé, Shane Bauer, and close friend, Josh Fattal, still remain detained.
All three individuals are recent graduates of the University of California, Berkeley.
This detail, along with the enormously inhumane and arbitrary nature of their imprisonment, must propel us all into action.
While the families of both men continue their pleas for help, we must acknowledge the severity of these human rights violations and dissolve our complacency.
As we all are University of California students, the pain endured by Sara, Shane and Josh impacts us on a sharply tender and personal level.
We must unite as a community, in order to solidly express our deep concerns for these three individuals, and for similar inhumane acts that have happened before, are happening now, and will happen in the future.
Nov. 4 marked the 31st anniversary of the Iranian hostage crisis.
During this tragedy, which sparked tensions between the United States and Iran, 52 American citizens suffered imprisonment for 444 days.
Unbelievably, the number of days Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have spent detained exceeds 444.
And yet, not enough people have acknowledged that this is a crisis just the same.
These people have been unjustly detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the past year and have had their rights denied to them.
Your university’s participation in passing a resolution for appealing the release of Shane and Josh will represent a step away from the apathy that often allows such actions to take place. Instead, it will illuminate the importance of not only feeling sympathy, but also transforming those feelings into action.
Massoumi is a third-year literature student at the University of California, San Diego.
