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In Jan­u­ary, we had called for a move­ment of sol­i­dar­i­ty for “a full-moon evening”.  The invi­ta­tion was heard and the night proved luminous.

Wish­es for free­dom, oth­er thoughts and expres­sions of sup­port car­ried by the rays of the god­dess star flew toward the pris­ons in Turkey to join the pris­on­ers,  Zehra Doğan among them.

This kind of sol­i­dar­i­ty evening may have seemed sur­pris­ing, far removed as it was from usu­al forms of militancy.

Here is the recent let­ter from Zehra, sent from her prison in Tar­sus, telling us about this evening,  fol­lowed by a few of the glimpses we have received…

Jan­u­ary 20 2019

I am writ­ing to you by the light of the moon. It is full and hang­ing above my head.

This night has a spe­cial mean­ing. I’m extreme­ly touched, And, strange­ly today, the full moon appears to us in all its splendor.

Every night when the moon appears, Der­sim climbs to the win­dow and yells “asmeee!” That means “moon” in zaza. She learnt it from Moth­er Sisê. Moth­er Sisê who gazes at the moon every night and blows kiss­es in its direc­tion. She gives it a lot of impor­tance and treats it as a sacred being. In  our cul­ture, the val­ue of the moon can be com­pared to no other.

Tonight, the moon is decked with clouds. It is so beau­ti­ful, I don’t know how to describe it. A huge bright moon, sur­round­ed by foam.

I will have seen the most beau­ti­ful moons in my life from jail. And tonight it the most beau­ti­ful of them all. And I write this let­ter in the light of this beau­ty. Our let­ters from Tar­sus are per­me­at­ed by the light of the moon, are you aware of this? Here, I always write to you in its glow. The moon will have tak­en on anoth­er mean­ing for the two of us also…

All the women here looked at the moon in order to feel you, you who are so far away, and we sent you our greet­ings. With some very love­ly emo­tions, we spread our ener­gy across the uni­verse. We could feel you. I hope you could feel us too.

 The moon is mag­nif­i­cent tonight and I am filled with beau­ti­ful feel­ings. I feel very hap­py. I can feel you and all women. Ishtar, Isis,  all the god­dess­es are the moon. Their name may be dif­fer­ent with the Sume­ri­ans, in Egypt, in the Land of Babel, but it is the same woman, the same moon.  Per­haps this is why for us the moon encom­pass­es all these mean­ings; and that we can feel so much through her. With her, we are stronger and happier.

Thank you Naz, I thank you all bound­less­ly. Thank you for existing.

Zehra

With Denis Péan and  Col­in Lin­der in the streets of Angers

Full Moon Sol­i­dar­i­ty #Angers with Mireille #Lib­erté for Zehra and all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers #FreeThe­mAll

 


Fea­ture image Jaz Ezra Kleo.

Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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Zehra Doğan
Auteure, mem­bre d’hon­neur de Kedistan
Jour­nal­iste, artiste. Jour­nal­ist, artist. Gazete­ci, sanatçı.