THERanian and Italian, Pegah Moshir Pour is in her early 30s and is an activist. For human rights and for her cause of her country of origin, Iran, which she left at the age of 9 with her family. But also for gender equality in Italy, in the STEM sectors (she has a degree in construction engineering). The general public watched her take the stage of the Sanremo Festival, she listened to her speak and repeat the verses of the anthem of the revolution, Baraye. She watched her let her hair down, as her peers in Iran are not allowed. Pegah will speak at the national event dedicated entirely to gender equality, WE Woman’s Equality Festival, which returns on 5 and 6 April 2023 in Lecce for its second edition. To tell what the words change, leadership, diversity, inclusion and justice mean to her.
Pegah Moshir Pour, Women in the Stem and Mahsa Amini
How did she become an activist? «My parents raised me as an independent person, owner of his time and his wallet. After high school I chose to study construction engineering. A degree considered unsuitable for a woman. Precisely on the front of female empowerment in STEM disciplines, I began to engage as an activist. But then, after the killing of Mahsa Amini, the revolution broke out in Iran and I moved on to these issues. I am a consultant in Ernst & Younga company attentive to diversity and inclusiveness, which allows me to commit myself to my battles».
«The time they wanted to whip my mother for a red nail polish»
Tell me about your family. «I probably inherited my grandfather’s combativeness: of Kurdish origins, he ran a newspaper that dealt with the rights of workers. My father was decidedly wealthy, in Tehran we lived in the upper area, the richest. I would like to tell about my mother the fear I experienced, close to her, when she risked being arrested and whipped for her red nail polish. My brother and I, who were there: we will never forget when the police stopped her for questioning. And to this day I have no idea how you managed to avoid arrest.’
He’s afraid?
“Sometimes yes. The Islamic Republic has spies everywhere, and there have been several cases of activists being threatened and chased. As a precaution, I never geolocate myself. But overall I’m lucky. There are many Italians who take care of me. And also the Iranians in Italy: we didn’t even know we were so many, the regime had made us suspicious of each other too. Now “we keep an eye on each other”, but in a good way».
Pegah Moshir Pour: «Iranian culture is tolerant. The regime does not”
What has the West still not understood about the Iranian revolution? “The world has finally come to know about what has been happening every day in Iran for 44 years. For 44 years, women have been subjected to the imposition of the hijab. But the veil, this still seems to me not clear, has nothing to do with religion. The veil was imposed by Khomeini in ’79 on the constitution of the Islamic Republic to symbolically oppose his revolution to the westernization desired and implemented by the Shah.
Before Khomeini there were those who wore chadors and those who wore miniskirts, the Iranians were free. Freedom of choice, respect for individual rights and tolerance are part of Iranian culture.
Cyrus the Great had already established the freedom of peoples to profess their religion, speak their language, follow the many and varied traditions of the empire. This is why this revolution is above all a cultural claim: it is a recovery of who we are, as Iranians. Of what we were, before Khomeini, and what we have remained».
The veil, symbol of the regime and of a revolution for which to sacrifice one’s life
What does the veil represent since the killing of Mahsa Amini? «Even before the fuse of this revolution was lit, the veil had turned, on the head of the young Iranians, into a handkerchief on the head. A fashion item, created using that imposed accessory, to express their femininity.
The revolution has once again transformed the veil into a symbol of the will to disobedience of the new generations. Of the decision not to be afraid anymore. Parents fear a lot for their children. But children teach fathers and mothers the value of protest. And also of sacrifice, for the cause of freedom”.
The importance of music for the revolution
Music and dance have often been the vehicle of this protest: why? «Music is an exceptional vehicle of messages. Iran also has a tradition of extraordinary music and dance, which Khomeini has greatly limited: since 1979 only music reviewed by the censorship institute has been permitted. I remember, as a child, listening to music in the car with my parents: we only had to see the moral police on the horizon for my father to turn the volume down. The younger generations have chosen to keep the volume up, no longer afraid.
As he always did, publishing in the underground of Tehran, Tomaj Salehi. A rapper who has lived in hiding for years to continue making his music. Arrested several times by the regime, tortured to the point of being unable to walk, he is one of those people we have no news of today: we cannot say whether he is alive or dead ».
How will it end? The auspice of Pegah Moshir Pour
What fate can we imagine for this revolution? «The involvement of international institutions will be decisive, especially those that have historically had relations with the regime, such as Italy. The regime should no longer be seen as an interlocutor. Not even on economic or energy issues. An opposition is establishing itself internationally, made up of 8 dissident leaders, key figures in this revolution. With these eight figures, and only with them, the governments of the West that have the fate of the Iranian people at heart should have a dialogue”.
The 8 dissident leaders to lead Iran of the future
These eight key dissenters are the exiled prince Reza Pahlavithe prize Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Shirin Hebadi, Canadian activist Hamed Esmaeilionwho lost his daughter and wife to a plane crash in Iran in 2020, the activist Masih Alinejadactresses and activists Nazanin Boniadi And Golshifteh Farahanithe former captain of the Iranian national team Ali Karimi and the general secretary of the Iranian Kurdish party Komala Abdullah Mohtadi. In an event organized by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security, they formalized an alliance against Ali Khamenei’s theocracy in recent days by publishing a Charter of solidarity and alliance for freedomalso called the “Mahsa Paper”, in reference to the murder of Mahsa (Jina) Amini.
What can the West do to support the Iranian revolution
«It is not enough», concludes Pegah Moshir Pour: «What is being done against Putin’s Russia could also be done against Ali Khamenei’s regime. We know about the poisoning of the girls at school. But there are many testimonies of young people who died of suspicious causes, perhaps by poisoning, after being released by the police. They committed suicide or died without the doctors being able to understand the causes. The Hague Tribunal could investigate these crimes.” And go all the way.
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