Planting The Rose: Reflections From Farid
January 2012
January 2012
There was a ceremony of planting the Anne Frank Rose for the first time in the UK in The Manchester Jewish Museum on the eve of holocaust memorial day 2012. This rose which is a tribute to Anne Frank, holocaust victims and a symbol of standing through hardships faced by refugees, was planted by my brother Farhad Vahidi; a young Iranian asylum seeker who is 19 years of age and has been an asylum seeker since he was 14.
Unlike Anne Frank he survived to his adulthood through a childhood which involved him fleeing his home country, living as an asylum seeker along with his family, going on the run from the UKBA and being detained only one week after he turned 18. After the rose was planted, I read the following poem to the present crowd:
Unlike Anne Frank he survived to his adulthood through a childhood which involved him fleeing his home country, living as an asylum seeker along with his family, going on the run from the UKBA and being detained only one week after he turned 18. After the rose was planted, I read the following poem to the present crowd:
Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you've no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you've no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
This is a poem written by Saadi, a Persian poet, about 800 years ago and it expresses what every human right activist fights for. You can find out more about him at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_%28poet%29
As an asylum seeker and a human right activist I picked this poem to:
· Show what an ideal world is to me.
· Say that all human beings should work together to have a world without borders.
· Express that episodes of history such as the holocaust should not happen again to any human being and whatever the problems are, war and killing are not a solution for it, as these both put humankind through pain.
Click here to see photographs from the Anne Frank rose planting ceremony, which took place on 26th January 2012.
As an asylum seeker and a human right activist I picked this poem to:
· Show what an ideal world is to me.
· Say that all human beings should work together to have a world without borders.
· Express that episodes of history such as the holocaust should not happen again to any human being and whatever the problems are, war and killing are not a solution for it, as these both put humankind through pain.
Click here to see photographs from the Anne Frank rose planting ceremony, which took place on 26th January 2012.