Only The Birds Fly Free – Mahnaz Mohammadi

After the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland in the 1980’s, the street the British Embassy was on was renamed after him (Bobby Sands). But had he lived, he would be ashamed of the way Iran treats its womenfolk, one of whom – who is one of many – the film-maker Mahnaz Mohammadi is still in jail, and another name you will remember was shot at a demonstration being a passer by, Neda Soltani, at whose grave Mahnaz was arrested…

Only the birds fly free
In the bright Tehran sky
One of many women, most nameless
Cow in their cells and cry.
They cannot speak, but they do, they pay for it,
What would Bobby Sands say if them he did meet,
Would he demand the Ayatollahs
Remove his name from their street?

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