In Paris, a march in support of the struggle of Iranian women, two years after the death of Mahsa Amini

Hundreds of people demonstrated in the capital on Sunday to support Iranian women who are defending their rights, despite Tehran’s crackdown.

Two years after the death of Mahsa Amini, this young woman arrested for not wearing her veil correctly, the fight of Iranian women for freedom continues, despite the repression. 34 prisoners have just started a hunger strike in Iran, from their prison. And on Sunday, September 15 in Paris, hundreds of people demonstrated to support them.

“Woman, life, freedom!” The slogan is everywhere in the procession. Mehan, a refugee in France for several years, made a placard with it. “Iran is still my country, it hurts me to see them like this. Since Mahsa’s revolution, women have put themselves in even more danger by removing their veils. I was arrested for wearing the veil, just to be with a boyfriend, just because we weren’t married. It’s hard every day.”

And it is from their Evin prison in Tehran that women political prisoners have become symbols of this resistance. Among those who are on hunger strike is Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi. Her son Ali explains that the Iranian regime is imposing a “white torture” : “Isolating her at all costs in order to hope to make her break psychologically, he describes for example. The fact that a mother cannot hear the voices of her children is torture in itself. Since the Nobel Prize, she has been completely isolated.”

“It’s been two years since we had any contact with her, nine years since we were able to hold our mother in our arms.”

Ali, son of Narges Mohammadi

to franceinfo

“His condition worries us greatly, he continues, It is extremely difficult to wake up one morning and think that maybe today my mother can die. But she is lucky, she is known. The Islamic Republic of Iran cannot kill her. Others are not so lucky, like Ebrahim Babaei. We have no news of them.”

“Be proud of your mother Narges Mohammadi as we are proud of the women and men of Iran. Their sacrifices are not in vain,” says Chirinne Ardakani, a member of the Iran Justice lawyers’ collective. She assures that their fight is changing mentalities in the country and that many men fully support women’s struggle for freedom.

Former French hostage Louis Arnaud also speaks out. He was released in June after two years in Iran. “I was in prison, but it was an honor to be among you, freedom fighters who shared my sorrows. And if my fate has helped to bring light to your struggle, then I am happy, because my suffering will not have been in vain.” Three other French nationals are still being held in Iran, alongside thousands of political prisoners.