“O“You cannot burn women made of fire”, that is the motto of Iranian ladies and of Mona Jafarian, a tireless Franco-Iranian activist who has develop into one of many voices in France of the Iranian individuals. Today she is releasing the e-book I’m Iranian revealed by Éditions de l’Observatoire. Followed by greater than 150,000 individuals on her social networks the place she relays the phrases of Iranians by way of movies and testimonies she receives, she is the founding father of the Femme Azadi affiliation. She spoke for a 12 months with round fifteen Iranian ladies who survive and combat tirelessly in opposition to the regime of the Islamic Republic.
Through these testimonies from all of the social circles that make up Iranian youth, the completely different audio system handle themes which have develop into electrical in France: the sporting of the veil, the assist of males in feminist struggles, Israel, Islamism and particularly secularism. . An important work for listening to and understanding the Iranian individuals and their diaspora, and which sounds for its creator like a warning about the way forward for France.
The Point: How was this work born, composed solely of testimonies from Iranian ladies?
Mona Jafarian: My publishing home, L’Observatoire, had beforehand revealed a piece through which many personalities wrote rather than Afghan ladies who may not do it themselves. My editor prompt I perform an analogous challenge for Iranian ladies. I then prompt giving the ground on to them in order that they might handle their perspective on the present state of affairs, on the demonstrations following the demise of Mahsa Amini [Kurde iranienne de 22 ans arrêtée pour port non conforme du voile, et morte trois jours plus tard, NDLR] and even on the West. I acquired a right away inexperienced gentle and the challenge was constructed like this. I did not anticipate to gather such robust testimonies… It was very tough to take psychologically. I wished those that learn this e-book to really perceive the Iranian individuals and to not scale back them to a romantic aesthetic of Amazons burning their sails to the background of songs!
Do you suppose that the West doesn’t perceive the violence suffered by Iranian ladies?
No, fairly the opposite. I typically obtain messages asking me why Iranians are usually not “protesting”, why they aren’t “taking to the streets again” when there are 85 million of them. The French don’t perceive what it means to protest simply by strolling on the street in Iran. One of the ladies who testified explains it, recounting the horror she suffered for daring to stroll hand in hand down the road together with her boyfriend. Going out in Iran means exposing your self to bodily and sexual assault. Rape of girls, kids and likewise males, as my e-book reveals, generally till demise ensues. By studying their tales, what they suffered, what their brothers suffered, we will lastly absolutely perceive what it means to protest in opposition to the regime in Iran. Beyond this problem in realizing the diploma of repression, the hypocrisy of the heads of state, and even of the UN, is actual: they know what is occurring. An unbiased United Nations fee even produced a 580-page report itemizing all of the crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated by the Islamic Republic! But nothing occurs…
In this e-book, the ladies testify, however in addition they speak quite a bit about Iranian males, who’re true allies of their struggles…
Of course. Even although the e-book is titled I’m Iranianyou simply should learn it to comprehend the significance of males within the struggles for freedom. An enormous brother who opposes his father, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, to guard his mom and his sister… Yet one other who will exhibit within the streets, till ending up in jail, the place he’ll endure the worst abuse ! It’s a whole people who find themselves combating, not simply ladies! Today, if we see that Iranian ladies are resisting with out veils within the streets, it is usually due to the boys who stroll alongside them and combat for them! There is an actual distinction with the state of affairs of girls in Afghanistan, the place the vast majority of males are “Talibanized”. In Iran, we chant “Woman, life, freedom”, but in addition “Man, homeland, prosperity”, the slogans complement one another, like our widespread commitments to humanity and the liberty of the Iranian individuals.
Iranian ladies inform you about their aversion to the veil and what it means to them. One of them talks about her incomprehension within the face of the combat for the sporting of the hijab and even the abaya in France…
I used to be ashamed to speak about it with them throughout our discussions. For many younger Iranian ladies, the truth that ladies can combat in France to put on the hijab or the abaya is nonsense. In truth, considered one of them to whom I ended up speaking about it even burst out laughing throughout our change! She truly mentioned to me in Persian: “It’s not going well, let them come and mess with the moral police and I’ll go for a walk rue des Champs-Élysées ! » Iranian youth, although very progressive, do not understand these accusations of “Islamophobia” after we denounce the symbolism of the hijab, right here in France! For her, it is unbelievable, and there is purpose to suppose so…
In France, feminist voices dedicated to Iran appear divided on the query of sporting the veil and, extra broadly, universalism.
Indeed, and that’s exactly the entire level of my e-book. We converse with quite a lot of Iranians, contact is direct and we relay the movies and testimonies they ship us. There, there isn’t a fuss: the veil is a software of oppression that they burn! They don’t bend it respectfully, they don’t combat on the danger of their lives for the “right to veil themselves or not”, in any other case they might not destroy it within the flames. They combat all the things that this veil represents, which isn’t only a easy piece of material. In France, we’re lowered to silence and we’re stigmatized for making this speech, whereas 40 million Iranian ladies wish to regain their freedom! I’m in fact not attacking ladies who put on the veil in France, however the ideology which makes them suppose that they have to put on the veil and settle for what that means to be “respectable”. I’m combating what’s being established in French society… And this isn’t a perspective of a “diaspora bourgeoisie”! In my e-book, there are testimonies of girls coming from deprived backgrounds, and even extraordinarily non secular ones. The LFI motion in feminist activist circles is totally disconnected from what is occurring in Iran and doesn’t perceive to what extent it’s a universalist and secular nation!
One of the ladies interviewed additionally discusses the Iranian individuals’s assist for Israel. What did you consider it?
I hesitated to depart the passage within the e-book, as a result of, just like the query of the symbolism of the veil, Israel is an electrical topic within the West however by no means in Iran. But I wished to allow them to say what they wished, and the truth is that the Iranians are fed up with seeing their cash used to finance terrorism, whereas they stay in nice precariousness. The Iranian individuals don’t have any animosity in the direction of Israel, nor the West or the United States, however, quite the opposite, an actual lucidity on terrorism. An Iranian girl interviewed expresses her worry that the Islamic Republic will begin a battle and that will probably be the individuals who drink. Another talks in regards to the Arab militias who come to Iran to assist to the regime and commit the worst abuses to implement Sharia legal guidelines and silence protests… This could be very removed from what we hear at present in breast of French youth!
You appear, on this work, as optimistic for the way forward for Iran as pessimistic for that of France… Why?
It is established, the Islamic Republic is useless and buried for the Iranians. The regime is rejected by virtually all the individuals. He tried all the things however misplaced the ideological battle. By accumulating and translating these testimonies, I felt a terrific disappointment with Western leaders, however I additionally understood to what extent we really feel censored in France. Without eager to, now we have allowed Islamism to realize floor and now we have way more modesty than ladies who stay beneath the yoke of this Islamism. It is an actual slap within the face of our French society that girls danger their lives to defend universalist, secular and republican values whereas in France we tremble on the concept of evoking them!
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But I nonetheless have hope for my two nations: Iran is 45 years forward of France, and all the things that occurred there, this convergence of struggles between the intense left and Islamism, I see it showing right here… Let’s hope that we do not have to undergo what the Iranians suffered for France to develop into secular once more!
I’m Iranianby Mona Jafarian, Éditions de l’Observatoire, 192 p., 18 euros, revealed November 6, 2024.
https://www.lepoint.fr/debats/en-iran-des-hommes-aussi-se-battent-pour-la-liberte-des-femmes-06-11-2024-2574616_2.php