29/09/2020
There are no words that could possibly describe the sadness and anger we feel regarding the loss of our friend and *fC member Aref Torkaman. So instead we want to amplify the moving words of Sabotage Theater Collective کلکتیو تئاتر سابوتاژ
"Hate attacks are not always acute, they can be a systematic process".
Before you continue reading, please know that we are collecting donations for Aref's funeral and really every Euro counts, so please please support us and Aref's friends in this: https://paypal.me/pools/c/8t0UnKY4JQ
"At the beginning of last week we lost our friend and comrade Aref - Aref Torkaman.
He had fled Iran because he was openly agnostic and because of his political activities, and for this faced prison.
It took him years to finally arrive in Berlin. He was in prison in Greece, he suffered unbelievable and inhumane violence on his way, and in Germany, because of Dublin, they wanted to deport him back to Greece.
In Berlin, he did not find the life he had imagined. This place could not give him the belonging and the freedom he was striving for.
He fled Iran because he wanted to openly raise his voice, but in Germany, nobody heard his voice:
Living in a Lager with security guards at the entrance checking on when you enter and when you leave, where friends are not allowed to visit.
Facing the terrorizing bureaucracy that frames your everyday life.
Ausländerbehörde, Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten, Soziale Wohnhilfe, Jobcenter, Verwaltungsgericht… this has nothing to do with the imagined freedom.
Aref did not live as a person here, but as a refugee! Because the word refugee does not mean a person who is fleeing or who has fled. Here you simply distinguish between persons - human beings who naturally have a voice - and refugees - someone only close to a person without a voice with rights close to a human being’s right.
Aref had many plans, dreams and interests. He wanted to work as a film director, he played theater with us. He was the most sensitive and innocent person we have ever met.
And now, in the dullness and indifference of this country, of this fortress Europe, that rather lets people die in the desert, in the ocean, be kept in prison, be killed by suffering from humiliating practices, a fortress Europe that rather pays other countries to close and guard their borders, than being a place of free movement and life, a Europe that - if people make it to enter - treats them like 2nd class people and allows for N***s to hunt and kill them, allows for people to end up in desperation; in this dullness and indifference, after years of struggle and fighting and going on, Aref finally lost his hope and, in his room of the Lager, put a plastic bag over his head, to not breathe anymore.
Why do you want to breathe when your voice is silenced?
You might call this a su***de, but we say that he was killed by oppression, ignorance and indifference."
We mourn Aref and collect costs for his funeral. Please only donate what you can. All the money that will be left over will be donated to initiatives with which Aref is closely connected. Thank you !
