The death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 sparked a revolutionary uprising in Iran, a moment of collective grief and defiance that continues to reverberate globally.
Three years and four months ago, with the revolutionary uprising that arose after the death of Mahsa Amini I tried to translate emotions into words, to break down cultural barriers. To remember that, even under the yoke of an Islamic regime, we are still human beings. Mothers. Brothers. Girls. We listen to the same music, we wear the same clothes under the Islamic uniform, we sing and we dance.
At the end of 2022, I spent my days and nights, alone, searching for videos and translating them. To translate the tears, the cries, the rage, into the language of the heart, the language where all human beings find themselves. So I tried to be a bridge between the Western world and the tragedy unfolding in Iran.
A tragedy that has lasted for a very long time, well before the Islamic revolution. Maybe even thousands of years ago. The tragedy of a people betrayed by their leaders, again and again.
Damaged Forever
A people who have known many madmen like Shah Abbas Iis [1571-1629] who was not content with killing his opponents, but cut them up alive and gave their flesh to eat to the soldiers of the Chigiyyin corps, in the main square of Isfahan.
This is not a children’s horror story. These atrocities have taken place on numerous occasions. This is not the first time that Iran has lived under a regime as brutal as that of the mullahs, but I hope it will be the last. Resistance to abomination, dictatorships and invaders is in our blood.
I was born during the war with Iraq, in 1983. After the Islamic Revolution, therefore. The first years of my life were filled with fear. Fear for my father, who was fleeing to save his skin, because he was part of the opposition, before and after the revolution. Fear of bombs, of the dark. My generation is deeply marked by fear. Damaged forever.
