When breaking news came on Tuesday that Iran will allow the mothers of three Americans arrested along the Iranian border in July 2009 to visit their grown children in a Tehran prison I knew this old postcard must run this week.
The beauty of the mountains in the background is especially poignant, as the three young Americans were hiking in those mountains when they strayed off course and were captured. Read the report by the Associated Press for full background and up-to-date information. Here are portions:
Iran has accused Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal of illegal border crossing, spying and having links to U.S. intelligence, and has said they would be brought to trial. Their families and the U.S. government have denied the spying accusations and called for their release.
The families of the three University of California at Berkeley graduates say they were hiking in the scenic Kurdistan region of northern Iraq and that if they did cross the border with Iran, they did so unintentionally...
...The only contact the families have had came in brief phone calls their children were allowed to make in March.
Last month, after the visit by Swiss diplomats, the mothers of Shourd and Bauer said the two were in poor health.
Shourd, who is being held alone in a cell, is suffering a serious gynecological condition and battling depression, while Bauer has a stomach ailment, their mothers said in April.
The Swiss diplomats reported that Bauer and Fattal were being held in the same cell. Shourd was allowed to see them once a day for a few minutes...
The video below is from an interview with two of the mothers in February 2010, when they had received first reports that a visit may be allowed in the future. One of the moms says in the interview that it had been 200 days since they had seen or heard from their kids. The time is longer now by three months. Let's hope that Iran doesn't back down from the decision to allow these visits.
Mothers of Jailed US Hikers Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd Urge Iran to Release Their Children
Free the Hikers.org
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10 comments:
what does the text on the back mean?
what a great postcard - love the image.
I have to admit that I'm in two minds about the hikers - clearly it's terrible they've been captured and i hope for their safe returtn, but what a stupid bloody place to go walking!
Again - i hope they are returned without harm, but in any country we visit we must always respect the culture and laws as we would expect them to respect ours
shasha~ Evidently, Gavaey was a publisher of photocards with international scenes. I do not know the background on the company.
Pixies~ Ever the pragmatist, you make valid points in your comment here. It was naive for them to hike where they did and I hope they serve as example to other would-be explorers everywhere. Be aware and beware.
this gave me chills, lydia. i can only imagine. i will pray for this meeting and pray for the release of these three kids.
ms. emily rabbit has a surprise for you on her post today. she says to hop on over.
love
kj
I have an adventurous friend who did all that kind of stuff throughout the Middle East on her own!
She wonders now how she could have taken such risks.
Oh, and I am putting the postcard on a friend's Facebook. She grew up in Tehran. I know she gets homesick for that place and is very upset about what has happened to her homeland.
Just gorgeous!
I have to admit to agreeing with Pixies; I mean, who in their right mind would travel to Iraq in the first place, and then go hiking along the Iranian border? Either extremely naive, or a screw loose, or there's more than meets the eye to this story. I'd love to know more. Did they go into Iraq from Turkey ? Northern Iraq along the Turkish border has been a violent place for some time. If not, from where? I sort of thought the borders were closed still to tourists. I was in Syria in 2007, and would not have dreamt of going anywhere near the Iraq border. Whatever the true story, they must have known they were playing with fire. Going into Iraq is still a very dangerous proposition today...
Great postcard... I wonder how many tourists Iran is getting these days to buy such postcards ?
kj~ Thanks for coming by and I certainly did appreciate Emily's surprise. :)
Hattie~ Thank you for sharing the post with your friend at FB. I have a good friend who married an Iranian after they met here in college. In their early married life they lived seven years in Iran. She so loved the country and the people. Their marriage failed some years ago and he actually moved back to Iran after he retired.
After reading Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books I felt all the sadder about what has happened there...
Phivos~ I think so too.
Owen~ I doubt that Iran has many tourists these days. Regarding your question about their hike I took this from the website noted at the end of post:
Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have been detained in Iran since July 31, 2009, when news reports say they accidentally crossed an unmarked border during a hiking trip in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. They were in a peaceful region of Iraq that is increasingly popular with Western tourists.
Oh, I love this postcard. So timely and important.
Kim~ Beautiful scene, isn't it? I wish that serenity like that prevailed.
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