“ We are with you ! » One year after the death of young Mahsa Amini in Iran, arrested for having worn the veil “inappropriately”, Julie Gayet calls for solidarity with Iranian women. The French actress and director is participating in a support video in five acts which will be broadcast from September 16 on social networks. Beauty in the face of obscurantism. Interview.
RFI : What triggered your decision to engage and support Iranian women? ?
It’s support from the start. A year ago, we saw the images of these young women who simply wanted to express a desire for freedom and especially this protest about how Mahsa Amini had died for a few locks of hair. To express this protest, Iranian women have been arbitrarily arrested and tortured. The atrocious images we saw on social media affected us all, the whole world. And we, the French actresses, tried, in our small way, with our weapons, that is to say with art, in one way or another, to convey our solidarity to Iranian women.
So, the commitment really comes from a desire to simply convey our support to Iranian women. This meant cutting strands of our hair, which may seem trivial to us today. And now there is this video Fire Hair. For a year, there was a lot to say, to express, to be their voice. But there is such violence in front and it is so complicated… This initiative is a simple way of using my profession as an actress to be their voice with a text written by an Iranian poet. It’s been a year now and we no longer hear it enough. In any case, there are so many things happening in the news all the time that it was important to send for September 16 a bottle in the sea, just a letter, just an artistic declaration for Iranian women .
[Vidéo] “Wickes of Fire,” an artistic call for support from Iranian women
“ Fire Wicks », what does this symbolize for you today ?
The locks of hair symbolize freedom. You can’t die for a few strands of hair. Fire Wicks, is to say: there it is, it’s been a year and nothing has changed. And we’re still here and we’re trying to vibe. Our warmth, we try to pass it on to you. I believe that these short films will serve to raise awareness about this fight of Iranians, and will allow us to talk again, to not forget them, to say that we are here. It’s a small stone and small stones make big mountains. And I hope it will move the mountains a little.
For Fire Wicks, you perform poems, texts which speak, among other things, of lifting hairs. These texts are subtitled in Persian, therefore also intended for Iranian women. In your opinion, what do women in Iran expect from an initiative like yours? ?
The beauty of art is that there isn’t always an explanation. It’s an emotion and it’s about expressing this emotion with verses, subtitled, verses which were first written in Persian, by someone who felt this emotion in their flesh and tries to translate this emotion, this inner violence, what all Iranian women talk about like Marjane Satrapi or Golshifteh Farahani who live in France and who, unfortunately, see [la souffrance] of their sisters and brothers in Iran. We’re not in Iran, so we just want to try, through art, to express emotion and hopefully that emotion comes through. This music, this poetry, these words, it’s really a gift, it’s just for them. And to say: “ We are with you! “. “Let’s be their voice.”
“ Woman, life, freedom », Since the death of Mahsa Amini, this slogan has crystallized expectations and demands in Iran. Is it also a slogan in which women, here in France, can recognize themselves? ?
It’s so “Woman, life, freedom” today! It vibrates all over the world. Indeed, I feel very close to this slogan. This is the place of women and the questioning of their freedom, everywhere, this resonates. And I want to say that Olympe de Gouges, as early as the French Revolution, shouted: “Woman, life, freedom” in France! And perhaps, if it hadn’t been for Napoleon who had created the Napoleonic Code and who had sent us all back home, there would have started to be a certain freedom for women. And every stone, every fight that we try to lead is very important, but it is for women and men and for future generations. So yes: “Woman, life, freedom”!
In Fire Wicks, no man appears on camera. What is the role of men in this mobilization in favor of Iranian women? ?
There are no men in front of the camera, but there are men behind the camera. It has a director, an author. This fight is men and women together. It’s not at all women versus men or men versus women. We must do it together. But there, it is patriarchy, fundamentalism, obscurantism which prevent young girls from accessing education. We see that young Iranian students want their sisters to study too, to be there. It’s terrible to think that we might not want young women to study in certain countries. This fight is men and women together. And I hope the younger generation wants to change this world.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini a year ago, many initiatives have been launched in France : actresses cut locks of their hair, there were exhibitions, performances. Despite all this, today, women in Iran continue to be imprisoned, tortured… Is the mobilization of the cultural community in France up to the challenge or do you have the feeling that we are in danger of being forgotten? ?
We, French actresses, mobilized in our own way and as best we could, so that it resonated. We also did it at the request of lawyers. They spoke to us about this silence which is the worst, which is forgetting. So, we must not forget. Fire Wicks also serves this purpose. The challenge is also that all the initiatives that took place over a year continue and do not stop. I’m confident, because I see that it wasn’t for nothing. It resonated. It is reported that women are still locked up, raped, tortured, men killed, journalists kidnapped and arrested. We must always continue to be their voice, continue to watch, to watch and not to give up. I want to think that it still makes things happen. I am so convinced of the importance of action versus inaction. Now I am an actress. I don’t do politics.