From Tehran to Den Haag: A Father’s Cry, A Nation’s Wound

A simple pencil portrait has arrived at Kauser News, but behind it lies a story of grief, protest, and a cry that echoes far beyond Iran’s borders.

The drawing was sent by Iranian artist Sepid Nazari. Her work portrays a young man’s face — calm, dignified, and hauntingly alive. Yet the portrait represents a life that may never return home.

Nazari accompanies her artwork with a story that has become painfully familiar to many Iranians.

She calls it “Sepehr Baba.”

According to her account, the tragedy reflects the fate of thousands of young Iranians who protested peacefully. Their only act, she writes, was to march together against dictatorship — unarmed, with empty hands, carrying nothing but hope for change.

Among the countless families affected is the story of a father searching for his son.

In a video that circulated widely, the father walks among rows of bodies, desperately looking for his child. One by one he approaches them, lifting coverings, hoping not to recognize the face beneath.

Each time, his voice breaks the silence.

“Sepehr Baba… where are you?”

He repeats the words again and again, calling for his son as if the young man might still answer.

That cry — Sepehr Baba, where are you? — has since become more than a father’s grief. It has turned into a phrase repeated by many Iranians, a painful symbol of loss, resistance, and memory.

Nazari’s portrait captures that moment of remembrance. The young face in the drawing stands not only for Sepehr, but for an entire generation whose lives have been overshadowed by violence and repression.

Through art, Nazari hopes the story will travel beyond Iran’s borders — from Tehran to Den Haag — carrying with it the voices that many feel the world has not yet fully heard.

Her drawing is not simply a portrait.

It is a witness.

And behind the quiet lines of pencil on paper remains a father’s unanswered question:

“Sepehr Baba… where are you?”

By Kauser News USA