“I want to carry the voice of Iranian women because they are inaudible”, denounces Nasim Eshqi, Iranian climbing champion

Climb for his freedom, and that of the Iranian people. At 40, Nasim Eshqi is the only Iranian professional climber to have opened climbing routes and developed the practice in her country. After falling in love with the cliffs at the age of 23, she now uses her visibility to highlight the fights for freedom in her country. Before the broadcast of Francesca Borghetti’s film, Climbing Iran, which will be available on March 8 at 6 p.m. on france.tv, the athlete confided in franceinfo: sport.

Franceinfo: sport: how did you enter the world of climbing?

Nasim Eshqi: I was doing kickboxing in Iran, I stopped because to compete abroad, I would have had to cover my head, and I didn’t want to promote the regime. I discovered climbing at the age of 23, I fell in love with it because it’s outdoors, with a lot of freedom. I was able to progress quickly, travel, open new paths, and protest without wearing the hijab in my photos, which is very risky in Iran.

How do you feel when you’re rock climbing?

Climbing is the absolute translation of freedom and equality, there is no gender or passport that decides for you. I really felt that I could be myself. It is not a static sport: the only rule is not to die. You decide who you want to be, and how you want to climb: with perfect moves, or just reach the top no matter how. The stone is the best teacher if you understand what it wants to tell you. You put your focus into understanding your body and your movements, and you get the best of what you can do.

How many routes have you opened so far?

I opened more than a hundred routes, mainly in Iran, but also in Turkey, Armenia, India, Georgia, in Europe. With friends, I developed in Iran four or five climbing spots where no road had been opened. From now on, the people of the village can try their hand at climbing.

But I’m not interested in opening a road just to put my name. If I climb alone just for the results, without sharing, for me it doesn’t make sense. I like to open new paths for myself, but also for others. I’m the only woman who does it professionally, it’s important for me to teach and pass on my experience to the younger generation.

Why did you choose not to return to Iran since 2022?

I never wanted to leave my country, I was very happy to feel useful, to develop climbing in my area with the new methods, outside the federation. In 2022, I was in Chamonix when they killed Mahsa Ahmini. At that time, my visa was almost expired. I decided not to go back. I saw a lot of actors and directors in prison, and I was sure I would have been there too. Going back to Iran was suicide.

Being abroad, having an international platform, it was the best thing to be the voice of Iranian women. They are afraid of women, especially those with visibility. Internet is blocked in Iran, I want to carry the voice of Iranian women, because they are inaudible.

Can the revolt that followed the death of Mahsa Amini have a lasting impact on the fight for women’s rights in Iran?

Mahsa Amini’s death is the breath that revealed the fire, and now it is impossible to extinguish it. People won’t go back to the way they were, they’re happy to die for it. The women will defy the police and tell them: “If you want to take my freedom, you will have to kill me!” That’s why it’s already a success, there are also demonstrations outside Iran: in Munich, Paris…

In every country, the Iranian diaspora is protesting to demand a free Iran. We demand that Western countries stop supporting the Islamic Republic. In February, the Swiss ambassador, covered in a hijab, came to sign a contract for money, exactly when the regime was raping and killing female students. Stop supporting the regime, we will make it go away!

You say in the documentary that “Iran made you who you were”, is it difficult to find your identity as an Iranian woman in exile?

Iran made me, not the Islamic Republic of Iran, not this conservative regime that puts acid in girls’ heads, poisons female students, rapes children. But living in this country, with this culture, fighting against the traditions, the regime, trying to be who I am in the midst of these obstacles, made me become who I am. Of course I love my country, it’s my culture, my nostalgia. It’s impossible to say that I don’t love him anymore, but I want him to be free. The revolutionaries of 1979 wanted freedom, not this Islamic regime. But the ayatollahs stole the people’s revolution.

Last October, an Iranian climbing athlete, Elnaz Rekabi, appeared without a veil at a competition and then disappeared for a few days. How did you perceive this action?

I prefer not to talk about her, she was part of the propaganda, because at that time, a whole school of young girls between 11 and 15 years old was arrested. They raped them, then handed them over to the parents. At the same time, the Islamic regime set fire to the “Evin” prison, where there were many political activists. They killed them and shot them in the prison. To cover up this crime and manipulate western information, they use these kind of people like her to cover the news. These are cyberattacks in the media.

This athlete is now training in Iran and other girls are being arrested in this prison. A five-minute action to manipulate the news is not a protest at all. Today we have to talk about those poisoned girls. The Islamic regime can no longer cheat and hide the truth. What can they do to prevent young girls from going to school and getting an education? For it is education that brings revolution.

What are the next challenges for the struggle for women’s rights and freedom in Iran?

It’s impossible to be silent as an athlete without borders. Unity is what the government fears. It will take time, because many are still afraid, but it will happen, one way or another. I will fight alongside the Iranians, because we must not remain silent. We can lose, but we cannot be silent.