When I read that Sarah Shourd’s Saturday release from an Iranian prison was to be postponed, I recalled one of her articles. The article, “Escape From Iraq: A Muslim Family Finds Solace In Ramadan,” was written before Shourd’s July 2009 detainment. Re-reading it, I pulled from it this: “No dark clouds mar the gray sky; no sound of thunder threatens in the distance.” How ominous, I thought.
Sarah Shourd was one of three American hikers detained by Iranian border guards while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan.
In a recent exchange between Shourd and her mother, the detainee disclosed that she had not been receiving treatment for a suspicious breast lump and precancerous cervical cells while awaiting trial in solitary confinement at Evin prison. The symptoms, she explained to her mother, had been getting steadily worse. She was receiving little to no aid from those running the prison.
As confirmed by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, an American would be freed Saturday morning at Hotel Esteghlal in Tehran. This statement was in reference to last Saturday.
So, I guess I was not alone in — albeit foolishly — counting this as the day of her actual release.
You think I would’ve learned, as an American, that the criminal justice system never runs as it’s scheduled to. Passed the time of the ‘unidentified’ prisoners release, I am desperately searching the Internet for what is being done to help. There are so many blogs dedicated to freeing her and the other hikers, but what are those in actual positions of power doing?
We watched as journalist Daniel Pearl was brutally decapitated in front of an Al-Qaeda video camera. How many more times is the Middle East going to unrightfully imprison an American or Canadian before the West finally understands that their world doesn’t run like ours? It never will!
I’m not promoting war — in Iraq or anywhere else. I am speaking solely about the cultural war that has pitted our country against theirs even before 9/11.
Saturday was the ninth anniversary of that day. Then, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, ending the lives of 3,000 innocent civilians. Today, we are still coping with the aftermath.
It is perhaps this tragedy that has forced Americans to come face-to-face with the harsh realities of the Middle East.
I fear that if the cancer doesn’t claim Sarah, Evin prison’s conditions will. It wouldn’t be the first time a traveler has perished in the midst of Iran’s continuous political and religious turmoil.
When I typed in the name of the prison, the first Google suggestion was “Evin prison torture.” Must I say it again? Iran is not like America! The Middle East is not like America! Civil rights are not guaranteed.
Listen, please. We want the wars to stop. We want peace. But those overseas want to use our naiveté as yet another political tool to shift power slowly but surely from the West.
I am a firm believer that America is ultimately good — even with the bad. Call me ignorant of our own faults, but at least I know well enough not to mistake some foreign country for a better place than our own.
Sarah Shourd is stuck in Tehran. No number of signatures or Facebook fan groups will free her from Iranian law. She is trapped and she is dying of cancer.