Back in the summer I went on my first demonstration. I met many people as we demonstrated and marched from the Bahraini to the Saudi embassies via Hyde Park Corner. We asked each other the usual questions like: Is this your first demonstration? One lady told me she had been on loads both in Iran and now in the UK. None of the people I spoke to said they were Bahraini. I recognised the gory photo on the banners from Twitter and stood so I couldn't see them all over again and again.
I also went to a poetry reading at the Pimlico offices of the Refugee Centre. There I chatted to a man who had come from Iraq. He told me that what had happened in Serbia/Yugoslavia wasn't my fault, which I appreciated hearing. I explained to him how years ago I saw a Bosnian woman sitting on the pavement with a cardboard placard begging in London and felt afraid of what I assumed would be her hatred if she knew I had Serbian family.
Because of these two encounters I decided to write Amnesty letters for Iran and Iraq in addition to Bahrain.
