TOlexia Piperno is 30 years old and has been traveling the world for seven. It arrived in Iran about three months ago. He was in the country to try to get to know it thoroughly and understand its beauties and difficulties.
But he was also in the square, during demonstrations against the obligation of the veil organized throughout the country after the killing of Mahsa Aminithe 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died on September 16 after being arrested by the police for not wearing the veil correctly.
The demonstrations and the arrest
And that’s exactly where she may have been arrested on September 28, panicking the parents. Fortunately, the woman managed to make the last phone call for help and after the appeal of the girl’s father, all possible channels, including humanitarian ones, to track her down and take her away as soon as possible they have all been activated.
There Farnesina is moving and while waiting, embassy and 007 are working to reconstruct his movements, his acquaintances. According to the parents, Alessia was arrested while celebrating her 30 years. But it is only a hypothesis, because there are no confirmations. It is not excluded, as the authorities of Tehran claim in the communiqué, that they may instead have it arrested in the street with friends.
The important thing now is to find out where it was taken. The hope is that she is being held in a police station which would make it easier to negotiate expulsion and immediate repatriation.
The biggest fear, however, is that be locked up in Evin Prison or even moved to Qarchak, la Shahr-e Ray Women’s Prison repeatedly referred to as “hell” by international organizations.
Alessia Piperno in an image posted on her Instagram account
Alessia Piperno, a free spirit on the go
Alessia Piperno from Rome, free spirit, lonely travelerdigital nomad arrived in Iran in July after having lived around the world, Australia, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Morocco, Honduras, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Panama.
Instagram is her travelogue where she tells in detail what happens to her. And it is precisely in one of these that he tells of not being able to stay because his visa has expired and is waiting for the new. Since he arrives thanks to the help of a “kind” man of whom, however, nothing is known.
On Instagram the stories of his travels
The posts are almost daily and in each of these all the love that the woman feels for Iran is highlighted. A country full of contradictions and difficulties for “a woman who travels alone” she writes.
Phrases and considerations accompanied by photos and videos of the events, that perhaps they may have alerted the Iranian authorities and put her in the crosshairs of the police.
“You can’t trust anyone in Iran”
The first days in Iran, however, were not easy for Alessia and she says it openly: “Iran is beautiful, but you can’t trust everyoneHe writes. “Lots of people try to cheat me, and I’m going crazy.” “I am lucky to have been born in ItalyHe adds. “I’m lucky to be able to sing out loud when I’m in the car, to leave my hair flying in the sky, to be able to walk down the street shaking hands with the person I love. If you are a woman, you are not allowed to do this in Iran“.
Love for a “difficult” country
But then the days pass and the days of chaos and demonstrations arrive. And the tenor of the posts changes: “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that first night,” she writes. “We ran to the hostel with our hearts in our throats. The sounds of gunfire boomed behind us and the smell of gas emanated into the air. I closed the door of the hostel while people were screaming in the streets ».
“After less than 30 seconds I heard a violent knock on the door. They were two women, two men and two children. They coughed sharply from breathing in the gas. As I passed him a glass of water, my eyes went to the corner of the courtyard, and that’s where I saw HER. A little girl, whose name I don’t know. Still, she will never forget her expression, it was the face of fear. I walked over to her, gave her a cookie, a bubble gum, but she refused. So I gave her my phone, opened her notes, and showed her that she could draw a picture. He designed a house“.
“This land went straight into my heart”
He even goes as far as to talk about the reasons for the protests: “I can’t get out of here, now more than ever. And I don’t do it to tempt fate, but because now I too am part of all this. This land welcomed me with open arms, it is true, it was not always easy, but after two and a half months, it entered me straight, inside and deep in my heart »she writes again.
“We Europeans know nothing about these people (…) They are demonstrating for their freedom. Women, men, adolescents and the elderly. And every one of them, every single person, risks his own life when he goes out on the streets. Many have already lost their lives, but if one day this will be a free countryit is thanks to these people, these girls who take to the streets and they set fire to their hijabs and of those men who are fighting for their women ».
The great dream of Alessia Piperno
To the last post on Instagram before the silence, Alessia entrusts her dream: return to Pakistan to rebuild a village destroyed by floods. «When the world gives you so much, the time comes to give something to the world (…) I have a dream ready in my head and in my heart. Rebuilding a village in Pakistan. And do you know what the craziest thing is? That I already know that … I will succeed“.
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