Ruzbeh Saadati – August 20, 2011
قل هل یستوی الذین یعلمون و الذین لا یعلمون ( زمر-9)
“Say: Are those who know equal to those who do not know?”
(Surah Az-Zumar, 9)
Knowledge and awareness liberate a person from the shackles of doubt. It is always those with sufficient understanding and expertise in a field who can make the most decisive and logical decisions. Throughout human history, it has been the enlightened who have created the brightest moments, while the ignorant have shaped the darkest ones. Doubt is born of ignorance, and ignorance leads to dogmatism. Dogma closes the door to reason. On the other hand, awareness is what makes a person passionate about freedom and justice. The more informed a person is, the freer and more liberated they will be. In truth, freedom is both created by and worthy of the enlightened.
The history of humanity is a history of the struggle for freedom, of revolutions and liberation wars. Leaders have always claimed that they are guiding people toward freedom—even though in some cases, one cannot deny that their real goal was enslavement. Yet no promise strikes the human heart more powerfully than the promise of freedom. So much so that even leaders who aimed to deny freedom felt compelled to promise it. Still, many of them were genuinely devoted to the idea of freedom and, in many cases, sacrificed their lives for it.
As Nelson Mandela once said in one of his speeches:
“During my lifetime, I have dedicated myself to the people of Africa. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Of course, by “freedom” we don’t mean the absence of all pressure, because growth always requires structure, and structure inevitably entails some form of pressure. But when such pressure takes on a coercive character and exceeds logical limits, the foundations of despotism and a system of discrimination are laid. Such a regime glorifies force and condemns freedom. It blocks all channels of awareness. Freedoms of expression, assembly, movement, and gathering are either denied or severely restricted. People become indifferent and emotionless. The stifling uniformity imposed by authoritarianism destroys the intellectual and spiritual vitality of society and cripples human reason. All human values and interests are pushed aside. Any effort to disseminate noble human values such as freedom and equality is met with harsh repression from the ruling power. It is this kind of repression that imprisoned Mandela, assassinated Martin Luther King, and murdered Malcolm X.
In recent decades, concurrent with the emergence and rise of the National Movement of Azerbaijan, we have witnessed extensive transformations in the redefinition of Azerbaijani national identity, the social roles of the movement's pioneers, and fundamental changes in the value and cultural foundations of a nation whose identity has historically and politically been denied. There has been a broad effort to suppress the true identity of a cultural community and to construct and impose a fabricated identity—an effort carried out through official state policies, mass media, national newspapers, etc. In the formation and continuation of the Azerbaijani National Movement, the leading activists have always been those with a critical perspective, a broad historical outlook, a strong sense of national belonging, and collective awareness—individuals capable of analyzing and interpreting events and proposing reasonable strategies. Their efforts have always focused on liberating concepts that the system of discrimination has consciously or unconsciously denied or suppressed. Concepts that, if set free, would pave the way for eradicating all forms of discrimination and achieving a free society based on human rights principles—concepts that regenerate Azerbaijani identity. This identity forms the core of the Azerbaijani individual's sense of belonging and highlights distinctions that reveal the differences between Azerbaijani and non-Azerbaijani identities. That is, it emphasizes an interpretation of identity whose outcome is the experience of difference and distinction.
Since Azerbaijani society needs to perceive these distinctions in order to shape its identity, it requires channels for rationalizing that identity and its nature—so that it can determine its own destiny. These channels are the very activists of Azerbaijan and their intellectual contributions.
 |
| Ibrahim Rashidi Savalan |
Ibrahim Rashidi is one of these activists. His thinking and worldview are grounded in deep awareness and knowledge of the elements of Azerbaijani national identity. His expertise includes mastery over the imagined history of Azerbaijan and his efforts to compile and promote this nation-building component; teaching in the Azerbaijani Turkic language; familiarity with related resources; and teaching and promoting the national history of Azerbaijan connected with the works of dedicated individuals like the late Professor Zehtabi. His intellectual specialization, his closeness to society, his linguistic and cultural understanding of his audience, and his respect for their values and beliefs—alongside his comprehensive knowledge of the intellectual movements in the region from their inception to the present—along with his continuous emphasis on the formation and goals of the National Government of Azerbaijan (Democratic Party of Azerbaijan) to revive the historical memory of the Azerbaijani people, and his insistence on Azerbaijani nationality as the sole source of collective identity legitimacy—have shaped in him a penetrating insight. Today, he stands as one of those who can serve as a consultative narrator for the Azerbaijani people and a defender in debates against those who deny this identity.
He is a living example of the saying “The foundation of knowledge is acting upon it,” because there is no doubt in him that hesitation in action stems from doubt in belief. Since authoritarian definitions of the Azerbaijani person contradict Rashidi’s conduct and actions, aggression by the forces of despotism manifests itself—through intimidation, torture, imprisonment, etc. This Azerbaijani political activist has, over the years, been detained numerous times in Evin Prison in Tehran, intelligence detention centers in Tabriz and Urmia, Ahar, Ardabil, and is currently imprisoned in Khiyav Prison. The aim of this aggression is singular: to destroy a witness who has evidence—to accuse someone falsely whose cultural ideals are deemed unacceptable by the system of discrimination. To them, truth is dangerous not because it threatens their power (since people like Rashidi have no desire for power), but because he represents a will dedicated to criticizing power. His criticism exposes all the mechanisms through which the ruling system benefits from discriminating against its people. His determination to prove the superiority of Azerbaijani self-determination is the very document he presents—and it is also the reason for his imprisonment.
But what is desirable?
Every cultural identity urgently needs recognition—because only through recognition can its value grow and its functions be preserved. But if that culture is subject to the corrosive and imposed pressures of cultural assimilation, the need for recognition becomes even more pronounced at other levels. For instance, today, Islamic identity in the UK is essentially not political. However, if national identity and the prevailing order in the UK were to be defined in a way that stems from Anglo-Saxon chauvinism and discrimination against Muslims, then that identity would inevitably become political.
Therefore, the desirable path for every Azerbaijani person is to design and implement a program of social change—one that makes the dominance of another society over Azerbaijani society neither possible nor attractive. There is only one path to human progress—not a desperate attempt to erase ruptures and destroy reason, but rather the full expansion of human reason and acceptance of the truth of rupture.
Footnotes:
-
Imagined history refers to the filling of historical gaps where no direct evidence is accessible. It includes pre-literate history, myths, etc.
-
This legitimacy does not contradict other identities such as gender, religion, etc.
بازداشت ابراهیم رشیدی مصداق پرخاشگری نظام تبعیض
Original Farsi Article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20121108214602/http://ruzbeh-s.blogfa.com/post-4.aspx