100 Days of Active Resistance

“The principle idea of Active Resistance is that you get out of life what you put in and that real experience of the world involves thinking. It is not enough to follow world politics, see films and read the prize-winning best sellers. This is superficial, you need to go deep in order to understand who you are, what the world is and how things could be better.” Vivienne Westwood

In November, a new book is being published to catalogue the 100 images collected as a result of this campaign. Starting on the 8^th of September 2010, people were asked to submit images that represented their idea of Active Resistance. One image was selected each day to create an exhibit of different perspectives.

Day 22 is an image of Mohammed el Gharani, a former Reprieve client. At age 14, Mohammed became the youngest person to ever be incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. For seven years he was falsely imprisoned, finally winning his hearing to be released in 2009. However, instead of being sent to Saudi Arabia, where he was born and raised, Mohammed was sent to Chad because of his parents were of Chadian origin. He has since had great difficulty adjusting to a war-riddled country that he is unfamiliar with and suffers from several medical problems resulting from his time at Guantanamo. Last week, Mohammed was finally able to receive much-needed medical care due to the generosity of Reprieve supporters.

At Reprieve, Mohammed’s story embodies the idea of Active Resistance. Not only is it important to keep fighting injustice around the world, it is imperative to question general preconceptions in search of truth.