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As impressive as Zainab's personality, is the list of names that join Nexus-founder Rob Riemen on stage at the Amsterdam Music Theatre. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks delivers to the keynote lecture. Cellist Karim Wasfi, the co-conductor of the Baghdad Symphony Orchestra, speaks about the importance of playing Beethoven and Schubert in Bagdad -after Saddam. And at the end of the day, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, with his overwhelming energy, makes sure that the 1200 people in the public cannot let their attention drift away.

When she fought against Saddam Hussein, Zainab Al-Suwaij was twenty years old:
"Why? Life was hijacked, freedom of speech was targeted by the government. I wanted to be free. I wanted my voice to be heard. During the demonstrations people were shot. I felt it my responsibility to help them. We started to free the political prisoners. In the prison I walked into a torture chamber. I saw the tools. I came out another person…" she says.
Now, almost twenty years later, a similar story about violations of human rights, only more explicit, tells Iranian human rights activist Landan Boroumand. She speaks about kids, arrested after the recent, disputed elections in June in Iran. These kids were, within a few minutes, condemned to death. And the girls were, before being executed, systematically raped. To force God not to allow them into heaven. Hearing these horrors, Rob Riemen loses his temper for a moment and reacts emotionally: "What is this for a regime of charlatans..?"

U kunt het hele arikel hier lezen.

Meike Oosterwijk