What is the deal between the Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the Aruban Virginia Dementricia? All three of these people have shown courage this year. Dementricia is the only one who did that in the distant past. She was born in 1842 under the tyrannical regime of slavery on a Dutch plantation, and has long been honored in Aruba for her resistance against it. In December, Prime Minister Rutte (VVD) called her one of the fighters against slavery who deserve more recognition. This is how her courage now resonates with the heirs of the then rulers.
The 38-year-old Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti has been in prison for two weeks. According to sources in Iran, she is suspected of spreading “false information” and of publishing “provocative material in support of the street protests”. In November, she posted a photo of herself without a headscarf and with a paper in her hands on Instagram. On it the simple text: “Women, life, freedom.” It is the slogan used by Iranians since September in their massive resistance to the regime’s suppression of freedoms. Alidoosti was imprisoned after expressing solidarity with Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old man who was executed this month for also protesting. It is unknown whether the same fate awaits Alidoosti as well.
When do people show courage? The 22-year-old Kurdish Mahsa (Jina) Amini did wear a headscarf during a family visit in Tehran in September, but according to the morality police it did not fit properly. She died after an arrest that, according to witnesses, was violent. According to women in the cell complex, she showed courage by not giving in to the insults and violence of the police.
In their indestructibility, courage and chance sometimes have something in common. Love and selflessness can have the same effect in war as a train pulling out of a station just before a bombing raid: the unexpected way out, a chance to avert destruction. But above all, courage is what chance is not. Chance happens to you, courage is a choice, which can only come from yourself. Coincidence is a confluence of forces, courage – although sometimes inspired by others – is essentially hyper-individual, sometimes against all other forces. Courage is the most essential resistance to the circumstances that produce chance and arbitrariness.
And courage can be eternal: it can consist of one act that will always reverberate. Virginia Dementricia could not have imagined that her decision in 1859 to steal clothing from slave owner and colonial administrator Jan van der Biest would give her a role in processing the past in 2022. And even if the regime of stern men that rules Iran survives 2023, it will never be able to erase the courage of all the women and men in Iran who have shown this year that they will have to be deprived of their freedom every day in order to imprison them. hold in oppression.
Countless acts of bravery are performed daily, all over the earth. People can still experience so much adversity, have to say goodbye to what is most dear to them, have to come to terms with destructive events and abuses of power: they muster up the courage. If you were to look from another galaxy, courage is perhaps the most indestructible characteristic of Earthlings. They just keep going no matter how much the circumstances – the systems – work against it.
There need be no desperation to stand up for an interest higher than one’s own life. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky did not flee or capitulate. He took to the streets in shirtsleeves to show that Ukraine did not bow. At the time, it was still thought that his country might only be able to hold out for a few days. Millions of Ukrainians have since shown great courage by remaining combative, making personal sacrifices and showing resilience in the face of destruction and war crimes, such as rape and torture.
Russians are also showing courage in their opposition to President Putin. See how Alexei Navalny resists the inhumane conditions in which he is held captive in an isolation cell.
Showing courage on a global scale seems to be the most difficult thing of all – power is apparently a handicap rather than a guarantee. Courageous decisions are needed to keep the planet livable. World summits in Egypt (climate change) and Canada (biodiversity) resulted in agreements, but with many options for partial interests and opponents.
A lot will also go wrong in 2023. But he who shows courage offers hope.
A version of this article also appeared in the December 31, 2022 newspaper