C’is an initiative that has lifted the hearts of women who continue to demonstrate in Iran despite the repression. In a solidarity video broadcast this Wednesday morning on social networks, around fifty renowned French actresses, singers and lawyers cut a lock of hair with scissors, like the Iranian women who have been performing this gesture for three weeks. during rallies in tribute to Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman who died on September 15 after being arrested by the morality police for an improperly worn veil.
“For freedom”, launches in the preamble the actress Juliette Binoche, who worked with the illustrious Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016 in France. Following in the footsteps of prestigious film and song artists, such as Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Adjani, Angèle, Isabelle Huppert, Juliette Armanet, Isabelle Carré, Jane Birkin or Julie Gayet, who each cut a lock of hair – and some up to a whole handful – in support of the Iranian women’s struggle. Lawyers also participated.
Help from Julie Gayet
The video sequences are interspersed with texts that recount the tragic fate of Mahsa Amini as well as the motivations of the women who take to the streets in Iran. The whole thing is accompanied in the background by the Persian version of the world hit “Bella Ciao” by the Iranian artist Gandom, which has become one of the anthems of the revolt against the Islamic Republic. It ends with a drawing by Marjane Satrapi, the author of the famous comic Persepolis, while the slogan “Woman, life, freedom!” resounds. “, the three watchwords of the protest in Iran, repeated in French in the demonstrations of support in Paris.
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At the origin of the video, the French lawyer Richard Sédillot, who, moved by the fight of the Iranian women, wished to give them greater visibility. “I have followed very closely the struggle of women in Iran against compulsory veiling and I have seen a desire among them to obtain a show of external support”, he explains to the Point. « After talking a lot with friends of Iranian origin about what we could do, I thought that this video would send a great message of solidarity to attract the international community to what is happening in the country. Thanks to the help of producer Muriel Sauzay and actress Julie Gayet, the lawyer specializing in international cases manages to bring together some fifty personalities in favor of Iran in record time.
No impact on the ground
“It’s an extremely important militant, artistic and feminist message because it carries the voice of all these young girls who risk their daily lives in Iran to recover their rights,” said Asal Bagheri, researcher and teacher specializing in Iranian cinema at the University of Cergy-Pontoise. “Now, if he is received with pleasure by many demonstrators, he will have very little impact on the situation on the ground. »
The initiative also comes in response to the call for international aid launched by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi on September 25th. In a video posted on his Instagram account, the author of the multi-award-winning film A separation had broken with his usual caution vis-à-vis the regime by urging people around the world to “stand in solidarity” with the fight of Iranians in the streets, opening a Pandora’s box in which many artists living in Iran have since engulfed .
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Asghar Farhadi’s favorite actress, Taraneh Alidousti, main role of Client in 2016, followed in the director’s footsteps by becoming the spokesperson for Iranian women: “We will not be silent! We are standing! Woman, life, freedom! “ she wrote on her Instagram page, taking up the three watchwords of the protest in Iran. In the aftermath, the prestigious Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya decided to remove her compulsory veil on Tuesday, September 27, on the occasion of a public funeral organized in Tehran, an unprecedented gesture of defiance towards the Islamic Republic imitating that made by many protesters in the street.
First stage of a vast campaign
According to lawyer Richard Sédillot, the support video of French artists in favor of Iranian women would only be the first step in a broader solidarity campaign. “There will be other collective actions of support, both politically and legally, allowing, I hope, in the end to introduce appeals before international institutions to help those who are fighting in Iran,” he said. -he. I find that the statements made by some of our rulers are not strong enough in relation to the issues on the ground, and many have arrived much too late. »
Twenty days after the revolt broke out against the Islamic Republic, French President Emmanuel Macron, who had already caused shock in Iran by meeting his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raïssi on September 20, has still not condemned the fierce repression of the ongoing demonstrations. in the country.