In Ireland a candle placed in the window signaled to
travelling priests that the home was a safe haven for Catholics, persecuted in
Britain from 1534 to the 1800s.The phrase became a symbol for hope, an
incentive to keep going.
As people search alternate news sources to make sense of the
seismic changes that threaten to affect everyday lives, some sharing guidelines
to survive a nuclear attack, others identifying DIY methods to generate electricity,
they feel like sitting ducks in the crossfire of petulant, warring oligarchs.
"Karayn tau kiya karaen" ( if we act what could we
do?) is on everyone’s minds. Massive street protests, parliamentary debates, impassioned
Security Council speeches, International Court of Justice rulings – all seem to
fall on deaf ears.
And then we see images of Palestinian youths smiling as they
are taken to the gallows, after Israeli parliament voted last month for the death
penalty for Palestinian prisoners. Those smiles carry the real power – the power
of the undefeated.
Dotted throughout history’s many revolutionary
movements, are examples of individuals who found the courage to stand up alone
for their convictions. A noblewoman Perpetua
and her slave Felicity were thrown into the Roman arena with wild animals because
they refused to renounce their Christian faith. The Abyssinian, Sumayyah bint Khayyat, considered
the first martyr of Islam, was killed by Abu Jahl after refusing to renounce
her belief in Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.
Some stand to defend others. In the
80s, an unknown man stood defiantly with two shopping bags bringing a column of
tanks to a halt near Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Aitzaz Hasan, a 15-year-old Pakistani student,
gave his life to save hundreds of students by tackling a suicide bomber before
he could enter the school. During Partition riots, many Hindus and Sikhs saved
Muslims, and Muslims saved Hindus and Sikhs.
Some choose to devote their lives
to specific causes. William Wilberforce led
a campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of
the Slave Trade Act in 1807. Abdus Sattar Edhi, from the age of twenty until
his death in 2016, devoted his life to sheltering the homeless and the abandoned,
and established the world's largest volunteer ambulance network. Naeem Sadiq
takes up the cause of underpaid workers. Journalist Julian Assange, at great personal
cost, established Wikileaks to host data from whistle blowers. The smallest act
can have impact especially when amplified by social media. Japanese Activist
Furusawa Yusuke has held daily solo demonstrations in Tokyo in solidarity with
Palestine for over three years.
While action is an obvious way of
registering concerns, refusal can be equally powerful. Congolese customs worker,
Floribèrt Bwana Chui, became a hero after he was assassinated for refusing rancid
rice from Rwanda into the country. Gandhi’s
Non-Cooperation movement included surrender of British titles, resignations
from government posts, refusal to pay taxes and boycotts of British Goods. The
boycott of products with links to Israel is an opportunity for ordinary people
to register their protest. Conscientious objectors and prisoners of
conscience faced imprisonment, such as Muhammad Ali Clay, Nelson Mandela and the
many political prisoners in Pakistani jails.
Standing by your convictions in the
public is difficult. Artists and poets find
creative ways. The graffiti artist Banksy, is known for his guerilla art, from
painting "We're bored of fish" in London Zoo’s penguin enclosure, to painting
ladders on the Palestinian West Bank wall and an image of children digging a
hole through the wall. Mursaleen Khan Sherwani, owner of a perfume stall in
Karachi which was reportedly burnt down seven times when he refused to pay
protection money, responded with “Perfume Chowk’ graffiti all over the city. Poet Habib Jalib recited poetry rejecting
martial law in public spaces. Shakespeare challenged conventions to change
English literature forever. Sudanese tiktok poet Leyley, “a lost boy from Kakuma”,
recites “A is for alive, B is for becoming, C is for continuing even when hope
leaves”.
American clergyman, A. J. Muste, stood outside the White
House every night during the Vietnam War, holding a candle. In response to a
reporter he said "Oh I don't do this to change the country. I do this so
the country won't change me.”
Durriya Kazi
April 19,
2026
Karachi
.
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