TEHRAN -- For 200 nights, night has meant something different to some people: an hour when, instead of going home, they head into the streets and stand beside people who, like them, are tired and worried, but have a reason to stay.
For 200 nights, people have come into the streets to support Iran’s armed forces in their resistance against the terrorist aggression by the United States and Israel against their homes.
On the first night, they came carrying news and worries. Then came the nights after that. Some arrived early, some late. Some came every night; others came whenever they could. And now there have been 200 nights.
Behind that number are people who became tired, afraid, homesick and angry, people who cried and then came back again. Their lives did not stop. In the morning, they went to work. They looked after their children, returned to their homes and carried on with their responsibilities. At night, they brought a part of that life into the street.
A mother holds her child. At first, the child is curious, looking around. Later, the child becomes tired and rests their head on the mother’s hand or arm. The mother remains among the crowd. There is nothing heroic or extraordinary about it. It is simply a mother, a child and another night.
Perhaps resistance is sometimes this simple.
It is coming despite exhaustion. It is not forgetting ordinary life, but also not allowing what is happening to separate people from everything around them. Resistance is not always shouting or slogans. Sometimes it is simply standing beside others.
Two hundred nights change people. The person who came on the first night is not the same person who comes on the 200th. They have seen and heard many things. They have lost people. Some hopes have faded, while new hopes have appeared. Yet one thing has remained: they do not want to be alone.
Two hundred nights is a story of staying. People did not allow a prolonged situation to separate them from one another. Perhaps “coming again” is one of the most real forms of resistance.
Now it is the 200th night. They are still there. The street has witnessed all of it. And people still prefer to be together rather than face fear and exhaustion separately.
Tomorrow will be another night. For those who have lived through these nights, each one has become part of a memory that will not easily be erased.
Perhaps resistance means this: after 200 nights, despite all the exhaustion, still having a reason to come.