Is in prison again: award winner Nasrin Sotoudeh (60) Photo: Alice Schwarzer Foundation
By Stefan Peter
In Germany, the Left and the Greens have fought against the headscarf ban for years. In Iran, courageous women are fighting against the compulsory headscarf – and ending up in prison for it. On Monday one of the fighters was honored in the Red City Hall.
Human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh (60) has been campaigning for many years to ensure that women in Iran do not have to veil in public. As a lawyer, she regularly defends opponents of the dictatorship.
And because of this, he repeatedly ended up in court himself, sentenced to lashes and long prison sentences. The Alice Schwarzer Foundation honored Sotoudeh with the first “Heroine Award” – she couldn’t be there because she was in prison again!
Jasmin Tabatabai, Kai Wegner and Alice Schwarzer in the Red Town Hall Photo: Christian Lohse
“According to the will of the mullahs, women have to be invisible,” said the ruling Kai Wegner (51, CDU) in his speech. “The awarding of the prize is an important signal – the world won’t look away.”
Publicist Alice Schwarzer (80) praised Sotoudeh’s “fight against forced veiling and the disenfranchisement of women”. “This veil was never just a piece of cloth, it was the flag of political Islam from the beginning.”
Actress Jasmin Tabatabai (56, “Last Trace Berlin”) gave the laudatory speech for the absent winner. “Nasrin Sotoudeh is concerned with nothing less than the right to self-determination.” The Iranian regime is trying with all its might to break women. “But the women don’t back down!”