{"id":3979,"date":"2023-12-03T19:13:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T15:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publictribune.tv\/?p=3979"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:02:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:32:02","slug":"%d8%b4%d9%87%d8%b1%d8%8c-%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1%db%8c%da%a9%db%8c-%d9%88-%d8%b1%d8%b9%db%8c%d8%aa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/3979\/","title":{"rendered":"The City, Darkness, and the Subjects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I walk down an alley\u2014quiet, deserted, so silent that it makes you doubt whether any living soul exists within it. I look up at the faint, thin moon and remember Sohrab\u2019s line that \u201cthe moon is above the settlement,\u201d but I tell myself that Sohrab wrongly assumed there was<\/em> a \u201csettlement.\u201d Why didn\u2019t he say the moon is \u201cabove ruin\u201d? What guarantee ever existed that a place called a settlement was truly built or thriving? And then I remind myself that perhaps this is what distinguishes poets like Sohrab from someone like Shamloo, who once said of Sohrab\u2019s softness: \u201cWhen they are beheading someone at the edge of the spring, I cannot say, \u2018Let\u2019s not muddy the water.\u2019\u201d Lost in these scattered thoughts, I realize I\u2019ve reached the middle of the alley\u2014narrow, and worse yet, dark. The same darkness that replays every winter\u2014indeed every autumn and winter\u2014in this city.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continue walking, and in the darkness, a handheld flashlight shines into my eyes. I raise my hand to shield them. Someone approaching asks, \u201cWho are you? What are you doing?\u201d As they get closer, I see they are two long-bearded officers of the regime. I say I\u2019ve come to retrieve a book I lent to a friend, and lie: I have an exam on it tomorrow. Ignoring the book and my lie, they ask for my friend\u2019s name and where he lives. Once they realize that whatever intentions I may have, they do not involve harming their regime, they leave me alone and warn me not to go out at midnight again because it is \u201cdangerous.\u201d And though the real danger stands before me in the form of these two fearsome men, I suppress a laugh and think: You are the danger. Danger has already won.<\/em> But outwardly, I accept their warning and move on. Every few steps, they turn back to check if I am who I claim to be. I knock on my friend\u2019s door; he comes out, notices them, and invites me inside. It is strange how easily these people have learned to terrify a city this large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, I ask my friend when the electricity went out. \u201cSince morning,\u201d he says. As usual, we assume something broke. But then we remember that yesterday we saw the electricity in the \u201celite\u201d neighborhood was perfectly fine. We know the blackout exists not because of a technical failure, but because someone decided<\/em> this part of the city should be dark. I ask him why people tolerate this. Don\u2019t we say, \u201cThe people\u2019s power is God\u2019s power\u201d? How can so many people accept such conditions for so many years without protest? He remains silent, choosing not to respond. I ask how his studies are going. With a lifeless laugh, he says the blackout has disrupted his schedule\u2014engineering coursework is impossible without a laptop. I ask why he doesn\u2019t find another solution, but again he is silent, and his silence tells me that solutions exist only for those with deep pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving his home, I walk out angry\u2014angry at the kind of darkness that does everything: obstructs, harms, destroys. Then I recall the hollow promises made by those clowns who once claimed Afghanistan would become an exporter of electricity. Now we see the only thing the country has exported is misfortune\u2014and clowns like them. And again I wonder why people do nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among words used to refer to a large group of humans, the most common in modern times is \u201cmardom\u201d\u2014the equivalent of \u201cpeople\u201d in English. As political philosophers have explained, this concept fundamentally differs from terms like \u201csubjects\u201d or \u201cthe masses.\u201d A \u201cpeople\u201d possesses agency and self-determination, conditions necessary for becoming modern political subjects. And the reason the trampling of rights in this country does not lead anyone to rise and act is that this population has not yet become a \u201cpeople.\u201d They are far from it. They will only become one when they believe in their own power and their right to determine their fate\u2014when they stop surrendering themselves, like a flock handed to a shepherd, to the mullahs of the Taliban regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darkness\u2014whether the literal darkness of power outages or the deeper darkness of girls being denied education\u2014will persist until the people become people<\/em>, rulers of their own destiny. Until they cease walking with heads bowed and instead carry an inner flame that refuses to accept being \u201csubjects\u201d under those who claim to be their \u201cshepherds.\u201d As one clown from the former republic once said at a gathering in the east: \u201cWe leaders are like shepherds, and you are like a flock\u2014we tell you what to do.\u201d Hearing this from officials of a regime that was supposed to be a \u201cpeople\u2019s government,\u201d a \u201cdemocratic\u201d system, proves that this land still has not reached political agency. And these people continue to pay the price for their long history of submission and self-pity\u2014an attitude that has never solved a single one of this land\u2019s countless problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realize I\u2019ve reached home again. I turn back and look down the length of the alley\u2014dark as a grave. And I think: perhaps these are the real graves of these people\u2014those condemned to live under the yoke of a group infamous for cruelty and terror, unable\u2014or unwilling\u2014to resist, watching the deterioration of their fate worsen day by day. And in this endless chain of condemnation, they suddenly look back and realize that the cup of life has emptied, that they lived entirely in the grave of darkness without ever mustering the courage to say \u201cno\u201d to it. Now, they pay for that fear with their misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I go inside and wait, so that if<\/em> the \u201cshepherds\u201d decide, they may \u201cgraciously\u201d allow a bit of light to return to our home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walk down an alley\u2014quiet, deserted, so silent that it makes you doubt whether any living soul exists within it. I look up at the faint, thin moon and remember Sohrab\u2019s line that \u201cthe moon is above the settlement,\u201d but I tell myself that Sohrab wrongly assumed there was a \u201csettlement.\u201d Why didn\u2019t he say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302,51],"tags":[67,301],"class_list":["post-3979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-stories","category-spotlight","tag-67","tag-301"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3979"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37746,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3979\/revisions\/37746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeyartelevision.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}