Another interesting evening yesterday was spent at Borgo a Mozzano’s Teatro della Verzura in the company of Iranian political activist Pegah Moshir Pour, who graduated in architecture in Italy’s Lucania. Pegah vividly described the crazily difficult situation women in particular are living in a country which is only nominally islamic. For example, the instance where children are beaten by the ‘moral police’ for ripping out the page in their text books showing the dedicatory photos of Khomeini and Khamenei. (I also remember reading how Oriana Fallaci ripped off the hijab she had to wear when interviewing Khomeini and walked out on the leader.)
Many local secondary school pupils attended the event and I considered how hijab wearing, considered by most women as a symbol of oppression in Iran, was increasingly being used by girls in the UK in opposition to their more ‘westernized’ parents. An almost unbelievable contradiction some might say.
For the full programme of interviews with significant players in today’s contemporary Italian scene see
Pegah Moshir Pour is 32 years old and continues to fight for human rights in her country of origin, which she left at the age of 9 with her family to live in Italy..
Pegah is also a digital rights activist and focuses on issues relating to social exclusion.
Pegah told us about has been happening in Itan shaken since last September, by the protests following the killing of twenty-two year old Mahsa Amini guilty of not wearing her veil correctly. “In Iran, women have been fighting every day for over forty years for their freedom: from the abolition of the veil obligation to entry into the world of politics to equal pay”.
“Women in Iran” – Pegah underlined – “are highly qualified and educated. About 97% of them are literate and 70% have a degree in subjects such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.. However, women and men are not free to do things that are taken for granted in the west like, for example, go around in shorts or without a veil or hug or kiss in public or post dance videos on social media.”
Furthermore, the protests that filled the Iranian squares have been followed by the adoption of repressive measures by the regime which has never stopped arresting, killing, intimidating, keeping children locked up at home and preventing them from attending schools. For example, police agents have also launched toxic gas and poisoned university canteens. Schools are supposed to be safe places.but in Iran this is not so given that at any moment the police can raid, collect cell phones, ask for the national anthem to be sung forcibly or beat up girls who don’t wear the veil.
“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the three-word slogan of the Iranian women’s struggle.
Among the other stories that Pegah told us was that of 17-year-old Nika Shakarami who represented an enemy of the regime given that her videos, where she is dancing and singing happily, went around the world. She took to the streets to protest but was chased and killed with baton blows on the head by police agents. To explain her death, the story of her suicide was invented. In fact her body was thrown from the top of her house. To corroborate this thesis, relatives were forced by the regime to confirm Nika’s suicide on national television, citing a non-existent alcohol and drug problems.
In conclusion, Pegah was keen to reiterate how boys and girls in Iran protest without weapons and with a single slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”.
Here is a list pf the following events in this series:
