Tuesday, Sep 16 2014
From: Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis
To: The United Nations and other human rights organizations

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain

Dear brothers of human society;
This letter was written on behalf of the Gonabadi Sufis in Iran. Sufis have a rich cultural heritage and a profoundly altruistic and peaceful attitude which the whole world has come to know about through figures such as Rumi, Attar, and Khayyam.
We, Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufis, have been suffering under oppression for years now. We are dismissed from our workplace on various pretexts thanks to the security apparatus. We are deprived of tertiary education; our homes, workplace, and even our thoughts and ideologies are inspected in hostile and brutal ways by security forces, our places of worship are set to fire and bulldozed flat, we are taken out of cities terror-stricken and our bodies and souls are savagely beaten, we are constantly arrested, kept in solitary confinement and interrogated in medieval ways. When our lawyers ask officials to treat us legally based on clauses clearly stated in the Constitution, they are also arrested, sentenced to long term imprisonments, and banned from working as lawyers.
This letter was written on behalf of more than two thousand Gonabadi Sufis who have joined a campaign called “Sufis’ Migration from Iran to Evin Prison” and have declared their readiness to be put behind bars in prisons across the country because they have long been contained in the prison of security oppression and the bottleneck of religious confrontations. We have been thrown into a large prison where we are denied all legal and social freedoms and expressing our ideas and ideologies results in social constraints. Thus, we have decided to take part in this campaign to seek refuge in a physical prison from this secretive captivity.
In several letters to the authorities in our country, we have announced that we are fully prepared to go to prison so that our secretive captivity will be revealed. On frequent occasions, we have tried to enter into dialog with the state so that it will stop these irrational pressures.
Not only have these attempts failed, but the pressures have mounted so much so that two thousand Sufis have decided to go to jail, and soon all of us will hold rallies in front of judicial organizations with “tied hands and covered eyes” in support of our brothers and with the intention of being incarcerated. We will join the rally with tied hands because our message is peace in response to conflict, and brotherhood in reaction to animosity. We will cover our eyes because we do not want our ignorant brethren to be ashamed of the violence they have inflicted upon us if we ever meet in the future.

Esteemed members of the UN
We did not write this letter to explain our difficulties and hardships. We have found our way forward. The only door open to us is that of prison. We wrote this letter to be the voice of those who were our lawyers and for many years defended our rights apparently in vain leading to their own imprisonment. These prisoners informed the world of human rights violations, and, consequently, they were sentenced to imprisonment and thrown into jail.
Today nine Gonabadi Sufis, who, accused of defending our violated rights, have been in prison for several years, have gone on hunger strike. Although they are under severe conditions in prison, they have not gone on hunger strike to draw attention to their own trampled rights. Rather, they have announced that they will continue the hunger strike until the oppression of and animosity toward the followers of Sufism and the security-oriented approach to them are removed, which over several years have caused different forms of deprivations and violation of rights, convictions and banishment, lash, and destruction of houses and places of worship. Since they know that authorities do not care, they have released their wills and testaments declaring that they will not stop the hunger strike until death.
Esteemed altruists
Our brothers are on the verge of death to save us. To help them, there is no way left for us but to go to prison voluntarily. Therefore, we request you to inform the world of these oppressions and condemn injustice.
The signatories of “Sufis’ Migration from Iran to Evin Prison” Campaign