Student Challenges Shabani and Officials Over Marriage Loans and Housing

Mr. Shabani, after all these years of shouting,

I talk for one minute and it is over. I know you will not do it.

But I said it so you would hear.

Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar…

Haj Agha Shabani,

the pulpit of Friday Prayer in an Islamic government must be Alavi.

It must be different from the Umayyad pulpit. The corrupt official,

the incompetent official must tremble at your words. This is preaching,

this calm tone…

It does not make a single one of these officials tremble, Mr. Shabani.

The first audience for all these“ musts” of yours is you yourself.

If you pin this official down right here at this Friday Prayer pulpit,

make him answer… If you drag him up here and say,

thirty- five thousand people are stuck in line for marriage loans, why is that?

Where is this young person supposed to go to protest?

The official will not answer me, a student. You must be the one to do this.

These“ musts,” this sermonic tone, if it were effective,

it would have had an effect by now. The provincial governor who is unfit, incapable…

People have gathered here a hundred times for national housing,

for seventy- meter cages.

How many more times should they gather? Who are you…

Our pain needs to be heard.

Mr. Governor answers someone living abroad, five thousand kilometers away,

but he does not answer us.

These kids whose blood is being spilled on the streets at night, where are you?

Officials, where is the provincial governor? Where is the governor?

Where are your kids?

Why should a Basiji kid’s blood be spilled on the street,

in front of his own brother?

Yes, some are rioters, death to them, shame on them. Get up, Mr. Shabani,

come at night to these kids who are standing in the cold. Answer them, talk to them.

Understand the path, understand the place,

understand the heart of the square. At least at the provincial level do something.

I know you will not, but I said it so you

would hear it.