Lawyer Mehri Jafari went missing while attempting to scale the 7,000m Peak Pobeda in Kyrgyzstan

A FINAL poem written by a lawyer and activist shortly before she died scaling one of the most dangerous mountains in the world was read out at an event to celebrate her life.

A fundraiser for Mehri Jafari, a well-known and much-loved Labour Party member, was held three months after she went missing while tackling the 7,000m summit of Peak Pobeda.

The 43-year-old, whose body has not been found, had composed the piece that was found among her possessions at the base camp in Kyrgyzstan. It has been translated by one of her close friends, Rouhi Shafii, who said: “This is her last writing and still in there she had been thinking very seriously about life.

“That is how she felt until her final days. It seems like she had written them on her last day. What she was thinking, I don’t know, but those were her last words.”

It is understood Ms Jafari went missing when she fell to her death whilst mountaineering in Kyrgyzstan.

Ms Shafii told the Tribune: “She was young, enthusiastic – a very multidimensional person. On one side very funny, on the other side very passionate. She was very serious about everything she was doing.

“She was a very active person. She expanded her circle of friends in the UK, Europe and everywhere. She was a very happy, independent woman.

“In the two or three weeks before she went on that last trip, she was hopeful about projects she wanted to do, [and] she was happy about her new life with her partner until her final days.”

In 2008, Ms Jafari, an experienced climber, became the first Iranian woman to solo climb the 7,010m Khan Tangri Peak in Kyrgyzstan. She had previously attempted to climb Peak Pobeda and returned for her second attempt when she fell.

Ms Jafari had fled Iran, where she had worked as a human rights lawyer, following a presidential election in 2009.

When she arrived in the UK, she worked for the International Coalition Against Violence in Iran, set up by Ms Shafii.

Ms Jafari worked as a carer for disabled children before going to the University of Westminster where she re-qualified as a solicitor, later becoming a director of two law firms. She previously worked as a human rights lawyer in Iran.

Ms Shafii said: “During the first week when she went missing, we were in a frenzy of phone calls here and there. Everybody was so desperate to find out what was happening.

“It is so dangerous and so treacherous. Maybe we will never know who is responsible.”

Ms Jafari’s partner Steve said: “It was a really wonderfully put together event and it was great to hear people sharing poetry and listening to Mehri’s story. I was very moved by it.

“Mehri was a person of tremendous energy and always said that she needed to climb to a high altitude to renew her energy and fulfil her soul.

“What I feel sure about is that in any moment that Mehri knew her life was about to end, she would have been happy to be embraced by the mountain and that there is no other kind of environment in which she would want to make her final rest. I and so many others will miss her enormously.”

The event was held at the Newington Green Meeting House where 18th-century feminist Mary Wollstonecraft was known to visit and meet with activists.

Councillors, MPs and friends read out poems to those who gathered. Ms Jafari’s three sisters were able to view the event from Iran via video link.

Several hundred pounds raised from the evening will be donated to Stop Honour Killings in memory of Ms Jafari.

MP Emily Thornberry read the poem People’s Faces by Kate Tempest to those who gathered. After the event, Ms Thornberry said: “What was extraordinary was that for all the amazing poems that were read, the most powerful were those read out by the Iranian friends and family of Mehri. Although I couldn’t understand the words, the emotion being expressed was so very powerful.”

MP Jeremy Corbyn also read out a tribute to Mehri at the event.

Ms Jafari worked as an organiser for the Holloway ward, represented by Councillor Jason Jackson. He said: “Mehri Jafari was a true comrade, activist, lawyer, poet, and passionate mountaineer.

“Her untimely death was a massive shock to many of us who knew her, but she died doing what she loved.

“Mehri campaigned for so many years with different groups to give voice to so many oppressed diverse communities. We will continue to support those campaigns with the support of many of us and her family. We miss her.”

Poem penned by Mehri before climb

It was forgotten
In the middle of sleep, awareness and dream
It came to me
Twirled, a name, a word?
Too much worries which brings worries
And too many things that were words
I said and it was my cries
I said, my cries
They all understood that I was
I am, in this time, I am
But maybe no one here, tomorrow
Or seven days from now
Will not understand that I am, I am
Or maybe I have not been forever.

A whirlpool of water under my feet
Exactly when I slipped,
And time stopped
Like movement
Something was whistling, like time,

Stopping, stopping reminded me that I have been calm
A deep laugh was hidden in the terror of the fright.

A strange, deep laugh in the sound of the whirlpool
In the deep glacier.
I was crying to celebrate my existence
Or another time which I won’t be
And I walk straight exactly on the same spot
Trying not to fall
This time.
Should there were other routes
I would have laughed happily.
The skin from the little finger on the right
Bleeding
There should have been another route,
Which there wasn’t
On the top of this hill to the other hill
If there was, but
And a happy smile
And today the sun is shining
Don’t know much
Seems the weather would be good.