From Evin prison, Narges Mohammadi managed to send a poignant testimony about the oppression of women by the ruling regime in Iran. Deprivation of freedoms, physical and sexual assaults, put to death in certain cases… The Nobel Peace Prize winner, at the risk of her life, depicts a country that is ever more wounded, while the moral police tighten their grip. Chirinne Ardakani, lawyer and president of the Iran Justice association and family council of Narges Mohammadi, speaks to RFI.
RFI: Narges Mohammadi sent a recording from Evin prison. She talks about the oppression suffered by women in Iran for many years now, but above all she speaks of a real “ full-scale war against all women “. These are strong words. How does this increased repression translate?
Chirinne Ardakani: It must be understood that since April 10, 2024, following the speech ofAli Khamenei, the supreme guide, we are witnessing a massive redeployment in all the streets of the country of the moral police which had not disappeared, quite the contrary, and which is reinforced today. Once again, she carried out mass arrests of women on public roads. She calls them out for wearing illegal veils, for their dress, with brutality moreover, in the eyes and with the knowledge of their family. Once again, she continues the hunt for unveiled women, but also men, young or old, all people who do not conform to Islamic morals. The “tattoo police”, the “fashion police”, t-shirts a little too short for men, capri pants a little too short… Everything that is considered representative of the “tattoo police”. western decadence “.
When Narges Mohammadi Talk about ” war against women “, she says that once again, the theocracy intends to assert the fact that the law on compulsory veiling is not negotiable and that women, believers or not, are required to veil themselves. Ultimately, it’s veil or death. We remember Mahsa Amini, dead for a poorly worn veilbut also subsequently, in September 2023,Armita Garawand, who suffered the same fate, died after being arrested, or in any case after having had an altercation with the morality police. And very recently, Dina Ghalibaf, this 22-year-old young woman currently incarcerated in Evin prison, in the women’s section alongside Narges Mohammadi, who discusses her fate in the forum in The world saying she could have been another Mahsa Amini or another Armita Garawand. Dina was not only beaten – her body has significant bruising – but also sexually assaulted.
When we talk about a war against women, we say that today, women are truly hunted down, beaten, humiliated in the Islamic Republic. Their bodies bear the scars of this violence, violence on the part of the State, targeted and assumed by the Islamic regime.
You mentioned Dina Ghalibaf, a young journalist who Narges Mohammadi talks about in his powerful testimony. She explains that she suffered a sexual assault in detention. Do we have any news about her? More generally, are we able to get information about what happens behind bars for women?
You have to be very careful. We have noises coming from Evin. It’s always very complicated to express oneself because this is information that is obviously very difficult to verify. However, you see that the women’s section of Evin prison is today a bastion of struggle and resistance, despite the risks involved, despite the repression which continues against these political prisoners. Narges Mohammadi says it: for five months she has been banned from absolutely any contact with the outside world, she has been banned from visits by her lawyer, she has no right to speak to his family. And ultimately, these women political prisoners had to implement stratagems at the risk of their lives.
Smuggling a message out of Evin prison, continuing to express yourself by denouncing the misogynistic policy of the Iranian government, further exposes political prisoners who, in retaliation, see their sentences increase and their detention regime tighten. . We must keep in mind that, for each message sent clandestinely, these women pay the price. It is very likely that, in the coming days, the revolutionary courts will increase Narges Mohammadi’s sentence for speaking out. And we already have this information: this morning, Sepideh Gholian was prohibited from calling, since they crossed the red line set by their jailers.
In prison and in the streets, women, through their determination, pay the heaviest price, but also embody resistance to the oppressive regime of the mullahs.
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Narges Mohammadi calls on the people of the world to do what is within their power to bring end to this merciless war “, ” this gender apartheid “. How can the international community act to support persecuted women in Iran?
I will take a very simple example: the chain of solidarity between human rights activists all over the world. We have a woman who is being held in the most secure political prison in the world, who is prohibited from communicating with the outside world. And an exceptional chain of solidarity will be set up between women in the world which will enable Narges Mohammadi, first thanks to her fellow prisoner Sepideh Gholian – herself a young journalist arrested for covering strikes banned in the country –, to use the phone card of his fellow inmate who will pay the price. Narges Mohammadi will then be able to give this message which will be collected by human rights activists abroad, and in particular from the diaspora here in Paris. The message will be posted online on social networks and will be translated into French then broadcast in a media such as The world, which will then in turn broadcast it. Other human rights activists who will read this column and will, all over the world, in turn be able to bring this message to life. In the same way, the free press – countries which allow this freedom of expression and this freedom of opinion – will in turn relay this message.
Then everyone must do their part. Political decision-makers must in turn appropriate this message from inside the political prison to take acts of support requested by Narges Mohammadi, and more broadly by the women of Iran. And when I say ” the acts “, it is about ensuring that there is active support for the Iranian population who, today, are not represented by their government. The gap, the gap has never been so great between the regime of the Islamic Republic and the entire population, which has made a very clear break with its leaders.
There, we have the very demonstration of what international mobilization can achieve on the basis of a message that comes out of one of the most repressive places in a political prison.
Narges Mohammadi has been imprisoned for three years, and this is not her first stint in prison. What is the news about her, especially about her state of health?
Narges Mohammadi never wants people to focus on his state of health. Because she’s a fighter. She does it with all the more humility because she is not the only one. And she wants us to say this: she is not the only detainee today who has health problems and who is refused care. It is also a strategy of the Iranian regime to try to weaken the protest of political prisoners by refusing them care or providing it late, so as to tire the bodies.
There is also Fatemeh Sepehri, a very pious activist, who herself wears the chador to remind us that this struggle of Iranian women is not a letter against religion, but a struggle against political Islam, that is- that is to say the confusion between religious law and civil law. Fatemeh Sepehri, who is also in the women’s section, has serious heart problems, and her vital prognosis is now very worrying. There is also another woman beside her that she wants us to talk about: Sedigheh Vasmaghi, a theologian and poet who, throughout her life, wore the obligatory veil and renounced it last September, when Armita Garawand died, in solidarity with the young women of her country. Sedigheh Vasmaghi was taken to hospital a few days ago because her health deteriorated in the women’s section of Evin prison.
Narges Mohammadi would like us to talk about these fellow prisoners, I believe, before discussing her fate, although she herself is being refused the cardiac care she needs. It should be remembered that she was operated on in 2021 and that she therefore remains in extremely fragile health, like all of these two fellow prisoners.
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