1/15/2024 0 Comments Iran proud mikaeel![]() I saw a lawyer in Switzerland who said: “You cannot return because they will arrest you.” A lawyer in Iran told my family the same. I called the Iranian Football Federation and they said: “You are playing with our enemy.” Enemy? They are my friends. My family and friends called me and said: “What’s happened? What did you do?” Everybody was talking about me on social media because I had played football without a hijab with some boys in Switzerland. I was on holiday in Zurich when I found out I couldn’t go back. But six or seven years ago I lost everything. My family lived in Isfahan, I was in Tehran, and every weekend I went to see them. When you go outside you have to respect their rules. Only Super League.” They said: “No, she has to come, she has to do everything we decide for her.” In Iran you cannot decide for yourself. My mum called the Iranian Football Federation and told them: “Shiva doesn’t want to play with the national team. When I was asked to play in the national team, I said no. Especially when it’s warm, you cannot breathe, you cannot run. When I was 16, I started to play professional futsal. You have to wear the hijab.” I remember I came home and talked with my mum and I said: “Look, I want to be a boy because a girl here cannot do anything.” ![]() When I was two, I started to play on the street with boys. As told to Mascha Malburg ‘I lost everything because I didn’t wear a hijab’ It’s a symbol of resurrection, and it’s also my mother’s first name, Parvaneh. It has a poetic role in Iranian literature, and in other cultures – in Greece it represents the soul. It is a magical creature, as thin as paper, with so many patterns. In my work I use the image of a butterfly. But every act of resistance is a spark of hope. Repression and violation of human rights is not an exclusively Iranian phenomenon. Every artist draws from their lived experience. I have been living in Germany for more than 30 years as an artist, activist and art professor. In that moment of solidarity, all fear fades. Propaganda banners had been shredded and burned. On the way to my parents’ house I saw slogans against the regime sprayed on walls. The first sign of change was these wonderful women’s hair. But when I walked out of that interrogation room, my eyes roamed round the entrance hall and I saw unveiled women. This year I was fearful, but with the uprising in Iran I was determined to do my part. I go to Tehran every year on the anniversary of my parents’ deaths. Since then, the families of victims of such murders have used the anniversaries to remember them, but also to demand truth and justice. One day I heard my parents had been murdered by Islamic Republic agents, in the house where I grew up. ![]() I wanted to go back to Iran to work as an artist, but when I put on an exhibition there I was besieged by secret service agents. In 1991 I came to Germany with my two little sons to study. The family of those who were involved politically suffered, too. And among the most radical opponents were my parents. It took decades for an opposition to form, for people to find a language to speak out, to criticise. We didn’t know if he would ever get out of prison, but fortunately he was released. My father was arrested and sentenced to death. Three girls from my class in high school were put in jail, and one was killed. It wasn’t just the veil: all freedoms were suddenly restricted. By the 1980s I had started to study art and I saw how bad it was – that repressive bleakness. The Islamic Republic grew into a monster that uses tradition and religion to oppose diversity, freedom, democracy and the rights of women. Intellectuals, liberals, democrats, people like my parents committed themselves to the revolution, but the religious forces gained the upper hand. When the revolution took place, I was 16. And at home there were always political meetings with my parents’ comrades, who were like family to me. My parents met through their political struggle, fighting for democracy in the Shah’s time. I was born and raised in Iran, in a dissident family.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |