Peace Line Monthly / Behrouz Javid Tehrani – From long years in prison till this day, I have always, at any time and place, tried to use any small opportunity in order to achieve my humanitarian goals. When the security apparatus by imprisoning people like myself was trying to limit our platform for activism, and limit our resources and our communications in order to stop us, I used the smallest available windows of communication and tried to voice the human rights violations that were happening in the prison and my surroundings. Maybe this was the most effective activism I could possibly do from the prison.
Human Right Activists in Iran (HRAI) which later Human Right Activist News Agency (HRANA) was added to it, has been my main partner in human rights activism from the very beginning; especially that I knew Keyvan Rafiee personally and had worked with him outside the prison, I also have kept in contact with Jamal Hosseini and other members during all these years.
However I started cooperating more seriously with HRANA after the prison, which lasted about 3 years, and it was a broader and more complicated experience having the title of “Human Rights Reporter” comparing to the time when I was a “prisoner”.
Certainly I do not intend to share my observations about the flourishment and thrive of HRAI or specifically HRANA. I would like to take this opportunity to tell what kind of qualities one should have to work for this organization, and for those who are wondering how such an organization could thrive and move forward for 10 years, I am listing 12 of these essential qualities from my personal experience.
To work for HRANA you need to have these qualities:
1- To somewhat forget your personal life
2- To be able to deal with eating less or not eating on time
3- To be able to at least have 16 hours of productive work per day
4- To be able to tolerate and endure criticism and gossips from every one
5- To be able to handle the back pain from long hours of sitting
6- To be able to talk on the phone for few hours a day without a break
7- To emotionally be strong enough to transfer the news of execution of a son to his mother
8- To publish the news of executions, tortures and other horrific news daily, yet to be able to not lose hope and motivation in the work
9- To be able to not sleep at all or wake up and work at any time of the day
10- To be able to live with stress
11- To be able to always have financial struggles
12- To repeat these for years and years on daily basis!
If you are such a person, congratulation and I advise you to contact HRANA for cooperation; such an organization with all the difficulties it faces is in need of people like you.
