Omid Memorial

The men and women whose stories you can read on this page are now all citizens of a silent city named Omid ("hope" in Persian). There, victims of persecution have found a common life whose substance is memory.

Omid's citizens were of varying social origins, nationalities, and religions; they held diverse, and often opposing, opinions and ideologies. Despite the differences in their personality, spirit, and moral fiber, they are all united in Omid by their natural rights and their humanity. What makes them fellow citizens is the fact that one day each of them was unfairly and arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. At that moment, while the world watched the unspeakable happen, an individual destiny was shattered, a family was destroyed, and an indescribable suffering was inflicted.

Keyvan Zandkarimi…

Keyvan Zandkarimi was a Sunni Kurd, who lived in Sanandaj. His interests were serving his friends and Muslims, always reciting and memorizing the Qur’an.

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Ahmad Nejati Kargar…

After a week and a half, he emerged from his coma.  He asked attendants to call his home phone, which they did.  Everything that happened to him, just before or after his arrest, is officially “not known.”

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Amir Javadifar…

It took friends to involve him in anything to do with politics.  Rather, he acted and studied, wrote songs, followed his own way.

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