"Now there are big men around me pointing at me with their fingers, saying 'you are a smuggler.' But I just laugh. And I laugh wholeheartedly. I burst out laughing!"

On February 28, independent journalist Fatima Movlamli, who was arrested, had her letter she wrote before her arrest shared by her relatives.

Here is Fatima Mövlamli's letter presented as it was:

“They told me to stop. They told me not to do it, Fatima. You will be arrested.

I accepted this as the sincere concern of my friends, my loved ones. I understood them.

But I couldn’t stop. I didn’t stop, and if you are reading this letter, it means I have paid the price for not stopping—I have been arrested.

Now, my friends who told me to stop are probably complaining, saying, 'See, we told you so. Was this really necessary for you?'

It was necessary, my dear ones. Honestly, it was necessary.

Do you think I am happy that my closest person in this world—my mother—has been staring at the roads with worry in her eyes?

Or that my younger sister, who I cherish as my own child, and although she appears so calm, has been constantly asking me in a low tone ever since the media repression started, ‘They won’t go after you, will they?’—and now she, filled with sorrow, tries to comfort my mother? Does that not drown me in tears?

My niece, who had just learned to say ‘aunt’ before I was arrested, now calls me 'aunt' in a tone that drags out the final 'a.' Do you think I don’t imagine her calling me that? Do you think I didn’t miss her as much as I miss my home? Do you think I didn’t feel the sorrow of not being there for Zeynab as I would for my own child?

If you think so, you’re mistaken. You are wrong, my dear ones.

So why didn’t I stop?

The reason is very simple—inner peace.

I found inner peace in not staying silent.

How could I sit quietly on the days when my colleagues were arrested for doing honest journalism?

Even if the people around me were physically calm, how could I silence the voice within me?

How could I respond to a complainant asking me, 'Can’t you cover my issue?' by saying, 'I’m sorry, I won’t be able to shed light on your issue'?

I couldn’t.

That’s why I continued—I wrote news, I prepared reports.

This made me happy. I found inner peace in not surrendering. I have no regrets.

Now, big men around me are pointing at me, saying, 'You are a smuggler.'

But I just laugh. I laugh wholeheartedly. I burst out laughing!

I have the sense of justice that they could never achieve in their entire lives.

I am a journalist. There is not a single crime I have committed that I could be held responsible for.

I am proud of that!

In short, my dear ones, don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m very fine.

The most important thing is that I am right, and now, in the faraway prison cell, there is only one thing that keeps my heart calm—inner peace.

With love,

Fatima Movlamli”