2023-12-03 07:15:05
The piece of furniture sits at the entrance to Taghi Rahmani’s apartment, in the red brick residence bordered by the tramway, which he occupies in the north of Paris. It’s a standard bookcase, one of the rare pieces of furniture in the living room, but with unusual contents. The top shelf houses the distinctions awarded to his wife, Narges Mohammadi, by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the freedom of expression organization PEN International and the German city of Weimar.
On the bottom board, a leather wallet. The Iranian human rights activist made it in Evin prison, in Tehran, where, locked up with other political prisoners, she also embroiders fabrics that she sends to her supporters, like a thread that connects her to them. The library serves as a family altar, a pocket museum that gives substance to the absent.
Taghi Rahmani has been married for twenty-five years to the woman who will become the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate on December 10. It is difficult to say that he shares his life with her as the repression of the mullahs’ regime has continued to affect them. tear one from the other. In 2012, the 64-year-old intellectual and opponent had to flee Iran to settle in Paris. Although he is physically safe in France, his thoughts remain focused on his country of origin and the struggles of his compatriots, starting with those of Narges Mohammadi.
For him and their children, Kiana and Ali, who joined him in 2015, the « Nobel » is first and foremost a wife and a mother whose estrangement must be avoided. In their exile, the trio leads a double life: on the one hand, the routine of a single father and his 17-year-old twins; on the other, the extraordinary daily life of a family in struggle, unwavering support of the activist.
Those close to him know of his fragile health
On October 6, 2023, media rushed to the apartment for a press conference. The Nobel committee had just announced its choice to reward Narges Mohammadi “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all”.
Kiana and Ali realized this when, in class, their phones started flooding with congratulatory messages. They jumped for joy and joined their father. In front of journalists, Taghi Rahmani recalled that beyond his wife, the prize rewarded “the men and women who fight in Iran for the motto “Women, life, freedom””.
This October evening in his apartment, the professor-looking man insists: “Narges is one of those activists who always puts others before herself. She hopes that the injustice experienced by women in Iran will never leave the news. » He always speaks in an even, precise and concentrated tone. As a good activist with a shell forged by repression, prison and torture, the husband controls his emotions. His children huddle next to him on the sofa, behind the desk extended by a table that extends into the middle of the living room. The twins complete the words of the father who speaks in Farsi, translated by a friend. Sometimes one of the three puts his arm on the shoulder of another with tenderness.
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