Dr Farhad Meysami is one of the most conscious civil activists of our time. For years he has studied nonviolent struggle and civil resistance. My hope is that one day honourable people such as him will assume leadership of our people’s civil struggle: a day when society has reached a level of maturity at which it seeks unity and power through the consciousness and resistance embodied by people like him. People such as Meysami are few, but they are a great asset in our people’s civil struggle along the narrow road to freedom. Leaders like him can unite society around consciousness and transform social fault lines into bridges connecting people. He deserves far greater attention from the thinkers and activists of our civil society.

The following passage is his invitation to social unity on the path toward the victory of civil resistance:

“Those who, while treating ‘civil resistance’ as central, have reached different conclusions (voting/not voting), are ultimately like members of one team. If the goalkeeper stops the ball with their hand, that is correct; if the others touch the ball with their hands, it is a foul. What is right for members of one team can differ. This does not prevent them from being a team; indeed, it is one of the conditions of being a team. Those who regard civil resistance as the principal matter, whether their final decision is to vote or not to vote, are cooperating in pursuit of a shared team objective. From this perspective, turning a secondary matter such as voting into a question of good and evil diverts attention from the principal issue. It is by focusing on that principal issue that the possibility of final victory emerges. Wandering among the margins has the opposite effect.”

Aydin Areta