A Nobel Peace Prize winner in prison – Narges Mohammadi’s fight for freedom in Iran | DW Documentary

A Nobel Peace Prize winner in prison – Narges Mohammadi’s fight for freedom in Iran | DW Documentary

I’m hot it’s so stuffy it’s hard to breathe I’m not well is it Daytime Nighttime time stands still you’ve done everything possible to break me to crush my will my fight to silence me you won’t Succeed my name is nages muhamadi I’m writing from aen prison in tan the authoritarian religious government has relentlessly suppressed the woman life Freedom Movement but even if people are no longer protesting in the streets the spirit of the movement lives on this is the last footage of her as a

Free woman after many years in prison Iranian human rights activist Nares muhammadi was released on bail in October 2020 immediately she risked being jailed again meeting with former inmates and making a film about the Iranian regime’s Crimes we’re a group of 23 activists who have experienced solitary confinement together we’re going to the Judiciary offices to file a complaint arguing that solitary confinement violates the law this is a historic moment this complaint means that both the tortured and the perpetrators are registered with the

Authorities this is an important step in our fight for justice you better put the camera down we’re nearly there otherwise they’ll take it from you no matter what you film in Iran you always need permission from the regime forces even if you have permission you’re strictly monitored you’re not allowed to film

Near court buildings that’s why we had to film in secret together with filmmakers fah Zar and G kavan nagz mohamadi began interviewing regime opponents for her documentary white torture the name describes an especially brutal form of torture experienced by her interview subjects and by mamadi herself it was a dangerous undertaking

Almost simultaneously authorities raided the homes of the entire team in tran they broke down my apartment door each time we filmed we had to copy the footage onto separate hard drives and send them to different places otherwise they would have confiscated the material when they searched our homes they didn’t find anything because

On the day they arrested narz we’d hidden all the film footage I was with nas when the regime forces broke into her house and because I witnessed her bravery that day I followed her example when they came to my place a few days later when they told me to put on a

Headscarf I said you’ve come into my house I don’t have to wear a headscarf here I make the rules here the other two filmmakers managed to get the highly sensitive footage out of the country they now live in Exile in Germany but narz muhammadi was sent back

To prison a few months later she’s still there today I gave up everything as a woman a mother and a human being to fight for Freedom equality and democracy I don’t regret that but that doesn’t apply to my children Ali and Kiana I regret that I can’t be with them 8 years ago NZ muhammed’s children left for Paris to join their father in Exile twins Ali and Kiana haven’t seen their mother since then the Iranian regime forbids any contact their last phone call was a year ago I don’t hold much hope of seeing her

Again but even if I don’t I will always be proud of Her we grew up like this with this fight against the government no matter where we are even if we were on Mars we’ll always be concerned with what’s happening in Iran in our Country growing up in Iran their mother nagz muhamadi was already campaigning for women’s rights their father tari rahmani also fought for human rights the children have many fond memories of their extended family but they also remember one or the other parent often being in prison and regime forces storming their home

I remember men breaking down the door my father was hiding when they came in even though I was so little I still shudder thinking about it I remember the terrible feeling of seeing my father being taken away I thought no let go of dad he doesn’t want to

Go t rahmani was imprisoned in her Iran for 14 years in 1988 when ayatollahi had thousands of political prisoners executed he survived when he faced imprisonment again he fled to Paris he hasn’t seen his wife for 11 years and hasn’t been able to visit his

Homeland my body is in Paris but my soul is in tran sometimes when I’m on the streets of Paris I imagine they’re the great boulevards of Tran Revolution Street and Republic Street nagz muhamadi did not follow him into Exile despite the fact that Iranian authorities would have been more than

Happy to let her leave from abroad her voice would have been less powerful I wanted us to go together but when I went abroad I realized that I wanted to go back living abroad is like living in an aquarium you’re not in the place where you’re needed everything is happening in Iran

In this fight it’s important to have principles the way I know nag she won’t leave Iran and because she won’t leave we have to organize our lives Accordingly The regime wants me to disappear but I won’t be defeated by this long separation even if at times I’m overcome by an overwhelming sadness that makes me think I won’t survive even after her public accusations against the government interviews exposing the regime’s crimes and continual prison sentences Nares

Muhamadi has kept working including by filming her documentary white torture in it she describes her own experiences in solitary confinement alone in a Cell for weeks and months at a time in that moment your heart stops and yes when the door is slammed shut you’re terrified four times in

Solitary my cell just three Paces wide artificial light 24 hours a day no book Nothing the spreading silence was like an endless scream dream paralyzing my brain cells you’re stripped of all your senses in solitary your sense of smell is gone the only sense that might work a bit is Hearing they take away your senses you lose your ability to perceive things you’re in a void your organs are working you’re alive in an endless grave but you’re not dead you’re still there that nothingness is really like experiencing death journalist sasan arayi has served numerous prison sentences in Iran

Including a total of 288 days in solitary confinement in 2009 as Iranians protested against the official results of the presidential election he was one of the journalists making sure the news reached the wider world it’s kind of ridiculous when I say that they’re crime was journalism but journalism is hugely

Significant many Iranian journalists have been in prison it depends on the length of the detention after a few days it’s pure torture political prisoners especially are subjected to that treatment they put pressure on them by keeping them in solitary for a few months often the government of the Islamic Republic and similar

Authoritarian regimes claim that political prisoners are foreign spies and things like that the regime makes up a story along those lines and chooses the people who will play along people are often arrested without being told the charges they’ll face or how long they’ll be detained then come degrading

Interrogations which also fall under the term white torture I endured a year and a half in solitary once 6 months then 4 months 3 months and 6 weeks you can’t imagine how hard it is when you go into the cell you feel like the walls are closing in on you and your

Heart is constricted it’s like your heart is being ripped out that’s what white torture feels Like we use the term white torture because it leaves no visible wounds on the body only psychological ones British Iranian student hon Romi was imprisoned in 2014 her offense she had tried to attend a men’s volleyball game in Teran something banned for Iranian Women one of their strategies is to humiliate you you’re not even allowed to use the toilet when you want to and an important part of this humiliation is that they open and close the door whenever they please you have no privacy at all then come the humiliations of a

Patriarchal society who are you anyway you’re not a person you’re a Woman They exert pressure by telling women that they are inferior one weapon of white torture in prisons is to force women to make sexual confessions many women have told Ness they’ve experienced this it’s systematic the interrogator isn’t doing it for his

Own sexual gratification it’s part of the procedure a male interrogator will say to a female prisoner describe your sexual relationship with that man NZ mamadi used her brief time out of prison to document these stories and later in prison she took the risk of continuing this work during the woman life Freedom

Protests she succeeded in publicizing accounts of sexual violence against prisoners prolonged separation from family and children is also used as a method of Torture nagz muhamadi is haunted by a dream she had in her cell of her young Daughter I actually felt Kiana’s lips on my cheek her small warm lip Tiana kissed me and I wanted to hug her when I suddenly realized I’m in a Cell I didn’t dare open my eyes to be sure in moments like that we’re simply human beings you many years have passed since then

Kiana is now 17 she thinks about the milestones big and small that she hasn’t been able to share with her Mother as I got older I started to miss my mom more and more I was a bit fed up with her not being with us I wanted my mother I wish she had taught me how to put on makeup how to dress she’s a woman

We have the same body she could teach me so much about myself but I had to figure it out all on my own I wish my mom had been there to help me of course I miss her but there are people who are worse off than me I consider consider myself

Lucky that my mom is still alive I do sport on the side just to keep going take my mind off things so that life can go on it’s an attempt to escape the situation even if at the end of the day it doesn’t work my mom and dad are my R models I’ve

Seen everything they’ve sacrificed how they dealt with things they’ve sacrificed sleep and important moments I remember Mom coming out of prison very ill that was hard for me but it was also an inspiration My mom is a fighter and I’m really proud of her I wish that one day she’d sit next to me and I could draw her that would be so cool this is just a person I saw walking by but I want to draw her she was incredibly poised and free at the same

Time this young woman is fabulous and I think Freedom has something to do with it because it’s wonderful to feel free I think freedom is everything if the young women in Iran could be as free as she is that would would be great now mohamadi was able to smuggle a

Letter to us out of prison through secret channels she wrote about what moved her most during the interviews she conducted with inmates who’d been tortured what shocked me was how severe the consequences of solitary confinement are even decades later it has huge effects on the soul the mind and even the Body one of the worst things was that they could open the door whenever they wanted after I was free I always locked the door of my room before I didn’t mind someone coming into my room but afterwards I’d suddenly be in shock whenever I sensed a movement I was on edge that someone

Could come in and I would have no control over it um as in the solitary cell they told me we’ll go out and come back with your family when I got into the interrogation room I heard voices of a woman and a Child I felt a burning pain my heart had stopped beating it turned out that I’d had a stroke I can hardly see now I can only read with my right eye I can’t drive or R I can’t even see my food properly if you take a human being and

Put them in a meat grinder what comes out will still have some human material but solitary confinement when you come out there’s nothing left of you even if you have the energy to defend yourself solitary confinement is really an attempt to destroy a person white torture is a method that eventually breaks its

Victims the regime coerces false confessions in order to publicly present detainees as guilty activist Abdullah M has experienced how that works firsthand the present indictment was drawn up on the basis of solid evidence as well as clear and unequivocal Confessions by the defendants when I read the confession I felt immense hatred for

Myself I asked myself how I could be so weak and I wondered how I could make up for it you feel like the foulest person in the world that can drive you to suicide today I’m thinking about those who made forced confessions in solitary confinement and were executed their stories are buried with

Them in December 2023 Nares muhamadi is not in solitary confinement she’s in a prison in the women’s wing for long-term political prisoners taking photos is forbidden these are images from a hacked surveillance camera in another Wing the pictures are like how it is beds against the wall bunk beds those

Who’ve been inside say that it’s very similar to what it looks like in the woman’s Wing Mariam Claren has been a political activist since her mother the German Iranian nid tahav was jailed in Iran 3 years ago tahav too campaigned for women’s rights and was sentenced to 10 years in

Prison narz and my mom have the same room and their beds are right beside each other some detainees are permitted occasional phone calls narz muhamadi has been able to smuggle out statements critical of the regime be during one visit or spread over several phone calls it can be via

Another prisoner who answers questions for narz it’s really not easy and it’s very dangerous which is why not every prisoner does nagz muhamadi is severely ill with a heart condition she’s now dependent on Medical Care in November 2023 when the prison Administration tried to force her

To wear a headscarf for her journey to the hospital she went on a hunger strike no food no medication her life was in Danger Days Later Nares muhammadi was allowed to go to the hospital without a headscarf and her friends created this photo montage a small victory against the

Regime refusing to wear a headscarf to go to the hospital might seem trivial to many people but the Islamic Republic envelops us like the shell of a big egg people are knocking against the shell from the inside hoping that cracks will appear and one day it will break narz muhamadi is 51 years

Old she spent a total of almost 9 years in prison and still has eight more to go despite this her will to fight has become even Stronger she’s decided to fight against the use of solitary confinement today Ness is much braver and more determined in what she does than Before what impresses me most is her Humanity that she puts others before herself she’s stubborn and sometimes that’s not good but in situations like these it’s a strength because she never gives up Victory is not easy it won’t come today or tomorrow but it is certain that’s

What she said and that’s what I believe unbreakable against a powerful regime that suppresses its opponents and has silenced so many but even if Ma major protests have stopped many continue to resist by challenging the rules of the Islamic Republic I don’t think there won’t be any more protests in Iran in my religious family my sister responded to what happened by taking off her headscarf the movement is like Embers among the ashes the fire can reignite at any time Nares muhamadi was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace

Prize it’s both an honor and an inspiration for all those who have taken to the streets and risked their lives under the banner of Xin xan Azadi woman life Freedom this is Nares Muhammad’s message from Ain prison I call on all of you to help free people from authoritarian systems especially religious and

Misogynistic IC ones stand up for Peace

Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi is one of the bravest women in the world. For more than 20 years, she has been fighting against the Iranian regime and its systematic oppression of women. Now she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But she won’t be able to accept the prize herself, because since 2021 she has once again been jailed, in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Mohammadi has been imprisoned 16 times for protesting against dictatorial regimes and human rights violations. She herself has experienced gender-based oppression and violence. She has been abused by regime officials and has survived “white torture,” a type of psychological torture carried out in solitary confinement. Her reports on “white torture” are harrowing: Prisoners are locked in two-by-three meter cells that are permanently lit, though often without any natural light. This form of torture is designed to psychologically break detainees, forcing them into false confessions which subsequently puts them at risk of being sentenced to execution. Inmates experience a complete loss of control – they lose their sense of time, space, and their own body. “White torture” leaves no visible scars. Nevertheless, upon release from prison, some people die as a result of mental breakdown or suicide, as they find they can no longer live with the traumatic effects.

Mohammadi’s Nobel Peace Prize also honors all the Iranians who took to the streets against their country’s regime under the slogan, “Woman, Life, Freedom.” This documentary by Katja Deiß and Narges Mohammadi is not only a portrait of the Iranian human rights activist, but an appeal from her jail cell: Mohammadi managed to smuggle messages out of prison for the film. She also produced a documentary herself during a period of release.

“Unbreakable – My Fight for Freedom in Iran” was produced by Hessischer Rundfunk in co-production with Deutsche Welle and German Dream Productions. It gives voice to victims of torture, political activists, and members of Narges Mohammadi’s family, who live in exile.

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