A Song for Human Rights Day
07 Dec 2011 Comments Off
Greetings,
Tonight I had the honour of performing at a special reception to mark the upcoming Human Rights Day (Saturday Dec. 10) here in Dublin. Colin Wrafter, the Director of the Human Rights Unit at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs gave a moving address on the subject of ‘freedom of religion or belief‘ and I was invited to play a short set of songs after his talk. I wrote a new song especially for the occasion about the persecution of religious minorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The reception was hosted by the National Assembly of the Bahá’í Faith in Ireland. Members of the Bahá’í Faith in Iran are being systematically denied one of the most basic human rights – the right to education. By denying young people the right to higher education simply because of their beliefs, the Iranian government is attempting to stifle the lives of an entire generation of its own people. Several Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Bishop Desmond Tutu and José Ramos, President of East Timor, have launched the ‘Education Under Fire‘ campaign to bring greater global awareness to this issue (www.educationunderfire.com). Rainn Wilson (best known as ‘Dwight’ from ‘The Office’) has voiced his concerns about the situation in an inspiring video posted below.
The song I’ve written for Human Rights Day is called ‘One Hundred Thousand Veils’ and is about the persecution of the Bahá’í Community in Iran. You can read the lyrics and hear the song – which I performed live for the first time last night at The Ruby Sessions in Dublin – below.
Rainn Wilson on ‘Education Under Fire’
‘One Hundred Thousand Veils‘ – performed for the first time last night at the Ruby Sessions in Dublin
Come down
and walk these roads around
the city of Tehran
where seven candles burn.
Follow me
all you who claim to be
possessed of charity
down to the Crimson Sea.
One hundred thousand veils have covered the sun
and darkest clouds have blocked and blackened the blue sky.
Did you hear the fate
of those who educate,
who even in the grave
find no respite from hate?
Have you seen the youth
who gave their lives for truth,
that girl who kissed the noosed
and welcomed all abuse?
One hundred thousand suns have fallen to earth
with blasts that block the ears from hearing the new song.
One hundred thousand veils have covered the truth.
How many mothers’ cries are lost in the tumult?
There is no war to fight
You have no sacred right
No holy book to cite
To make these wrongs seem right.
Does it so offend
to want this world to mend,
to walk in hope to the end
and see each man a friend?
Come down
and walk these roads around
the cities of Iran
which boast so much to man.
