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"They arrested my father to put pressure on me"

The protests in Iran have been going on for more than four weeks.

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"They arrested my father to put pressure on me"

The protests in Iran have been going on for more than four weeks. Since the death of the Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died after being held in police custody by the Moral Police, people have been demonstrating across the country against the mullahs' regime - and demanding an end to the Islamic Republic.

Farnoush Hamidian, 34, is an exiled Iranian and lives as a model in Paris. She observes the protests from afar and posts a lot on social media. Some family members are also among the demonstrators and are fighting for a revolution. "There's no going back!" says Hamidian.

WORLD: You have lived in Europe since 2014. Why did you turn your back on your homeland?

Farnoush Hamidian: I grew up very sheltered. We had a rose garden with butterflies. My whole family got together on Fridays. In second grade, my religion teacher said if I didn't take the class seriously, I would go to hell. That scared me. When I was 16, I wanted to borrow a CD from a friend. But on the way there I was intercepted by the police. It wasn't the first time, but this one time was traumatizing. They held me for six hours, beat me and then just threw me out on the street. I will never forget that. I went to a psychologist until I was 25. My mother later put pressure on me to go to Germany so that I could build a better life.

WORLD: How does your life differ here from everyday life in Iran?

Hamidian: When I came to Hamburg, it was as if I had landed on Mars. I was away from home for the first time. In Iran I wasn't allowed to stay with friends, I often had a driver. My father was just worried. But it felt like being chained hand and foot. The first thing that struck me was that there it was possible for a woman to live in freedom and in peace. This was new to me. Because I had occasionally modeled as a teenager in Iran, I applied to model agencies. I signed a contract soon after.

WORLD: You live as a model in Paris and look at the protests in your home country from the outside. What do you see?

Hamidian: What is happening in Iran right now is remarkable. People are risking their lives to change something in the country. And the women are so brave, Gen Z is driving the protests. By looking abroad, they know what is possible today and want to shape Iran according to their own standards. They fight for fundamental human rights, for freedom of expression. In the past few days I have received messages from men apologizing for their behavior towards me. 'You women have been treated so brutally by us, we are all ashamed and hope that one day we will be as brave as you are.' It's like waking up from a deep sleep and suddenly realizing everything that went wrong.

WORLD: Are you afraid for your family?

Hamidian: The nights are bad. We don't have much contact because the internet keeps going down in Iran. Also, my father was arrested.

WORLD: What happened?

Hamidian: They interrogated him because his daughter is a model. Modeling without a hijab is illegal in Iran - and that's exactly what I'm doing now abroad. I also spoke about the atrocities against women in Iran, especially after the death of Mahsa Amini. They pushed him to tell me to stop.

WORLD: Speaking out against the mullah regime can lead to prison terms. Why are you doing it anyway?

Hamidian: The question is: Do we continue in Iran as we have been, or do we go all out and fight for a better future? I am responsible for all my decisions myself. And to be honest, there's nothing I haven't experienced. Arrests, humiliating interrogations. I'm not scared anymore. And right now people are dying in Iran. I now have a reach that allows me to give Iranian women a voice. But I wish I could do more.

WORLD: Modeling without a hijab would not be possible in Iran. Was your career choice also a political decision?

Hamidian: Yes and no. In western countries it was not possible for me to become a model. I have always been judged by the Iranian government and religion. Just the other day I was told again not to express myself politically, otherwise I would lose jobs. I used to be blacklisted by some clients for talking about politics on social media. Clients usually want nothing to do with it.

WORLD: In an interview in 2019, you said that Iran would change through reforms, but you didn’t want a revolution.

Hamidian: At that time we thought that a revolution would only bring foreign forces into the country. But we didn't want strangers to tell us how to live. So they built on reforms and tried to deal with the problems themselves - until the day Mahsa Amini was killed. That was the last straw. If there was even a one percent chance of winning, I would be willing to give my life for it. The problem is that there are still people who benefit from the regime and therefore do not oppose it.

WORLD: What support do you expect from Europe?

Hamidian: The EU is dealing with Ukraine and Russia right now. There is also a fear of the gas crisis. You don't want to exacerbate them, so you're careful what you say. This is understandable from a political point of view. But what I don't understand is why they don't use tougher sanctions against certain people in Iran. Russian oligarchs could also have their accounts frozen.

WORLD: What do you wish for the future of Iran?

Hamidian: Everyone responsible must be held accountable, everything must be prosecuted. But we will not do to them what they did to us. The most brilliant minds in our country are in Evin prison: economists, human rights activists, politicians. When we finally open their doors, we can start rebuilding Iran. And then many Iranian exiles will come home again.

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