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Good morning. Until a couple of days ago I had not heard of Elahe Tavokolian. She is a PhD student shot by Iranian security forces in September 2022 during the protests triggered by the death of Mahsi Amini while in custody for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly. Tavokolian lost an eye. Recently, as she began to recover from the incident, she wrote these defiant words on a social media post directed at Iranian security forces: ‘You aimed at my eyes but my heart is still beating … The light inside my heart and the hope of good days to come will keep me smiling.’

Her story, and that of others who say they have been blinded in targeted attacks by the Iranian security forces, models a defiant hope. Perhaps that is unsurprising. Where there are two more or less equally powerful sides capable of wielding violence they often end up being caught in a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks. Tavokolian and others like her do not have that option. Where power is so freighted in favour of the state, perhaps a peaceful, hope-filled defiance is the only reasonable response. A woman like Tavokolian impressively takes her victimhood and transforms it into a challenge against an authority which would crush her hope.

The story of the resurrected Jesus offers a striking and perhaps surprising solidarity with those, like Tavokolian, who are victims of state violence. I read Jesus’s resurrection as both a victory over death and violence, and also a signal that he is the Son of God. In his risen life, Christians would say that Jesus reveals he has all of the authority and power to judge the world, greater than any empire or state.

However, rather than use that authority as an earthly ruler might, he remains in solidarity with those who are victimised by the unjust use of power. Jesus’s risen body still bears all the marks of the violence done to him. The holes in his hands, feet and side are still present. Jesus has not discarded his wounds as if they’re incidental. They have become scars he will carry for all time.

These wounds are still part of him, and they keep him close to the victims of injustice. A just society requires those who commit violence to be called to account. However, a society which cannot work through its wounds and find a way to reconciliation risks repeating the injustices of its past. Elahe Tavokolian’s response to her wounds is powerful. She also shocks when she says to the Iranian authorities, ‘Thank you for taking the sight from my eye which has opened the eyes of so many people.’

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