Testimony of Life, Warning for the Future

Musa Akrami

1

In an era where violence is gradually being normalized,
and human lives fade in the clamor of power and confrontation,
silence
is neither a sign of wisdom,
nor moral neutrality.

2

We mourn the lives
that could have lived,
and are anxious about a future
that, from the accumulation of suffering, anger, and humiliation,
grows ever more perilous and hollow.

3

No order,
no power,
and no threat
– internal or external –
grants a license to disregard the inherent dignity of a human being.

4

War,
oppression,
and the silencing of protest,
each in its own tongue,
lead us to a common dead end:
the erosion of a nation's human, moral, and historical capital.

5

Our responsibility today
is not to intensify animosity and hatred,
but to safeguard life,
to reduce violence,
and to open horizons
that still make the future possible.

6

These words come not from a position of power,
nor from a position of fear;
but from the position of human conscience
which does not wish to stand, tomorrow,
before history and one's own self,
ashamed.

Saturday, 18 Bahman 1404 | 7 February 2026