Azadi-azadi-azadi - #WomanLifeFreedom

Interview with Nele, Nika Shakarami’s girlfriend by Zeit Magazine

‘‘Nika loved the moon, and it became an important symbol in their relationship, says Nele. When they missed each other, they would say: “We don’t live in the same country, but beneath the same sky.” Sometimes, Nika would tell Nele over the phone that she was looking at the moon, saying: You should go outside too, Nele, so we can look at it together. They even called each other “my moonie.” Or Niki and Neli. Or Haku and Chihiro, like the main characters in the anime film “Spirited Away,” which both of them loved. The story involves a courageous boy helping a shy girl escape a world full of monsters. “That was us,” Nele says today‘‘

Nika Shakarami was a 16 year old brave Iranian girl who was kidnapped by the police during the ongoing protests in Iran, brutally tortured, raped and murdered in cold blood. Her burial was on her birthday. Say her name, Nika Shakarami

“Not all men” you cry, as all the rest who aren’t the legislators, soldiers and politicians sit back and watch. Whether it be in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan where women have quite literally lost their right to speak in public, India with a sexual and domestic violence epidemic almost unheard of, Iran where women are murdered by police for removing their veil, the United States where women’s reproductive rights have been lost, South Korea with their spycam epidemic, France where a woman’s husband invited round dozens of men who lived locally to rape her as she lay unconscious, Iraq seeking to decriminalise marrying young girls, or how literally anywhere in the world you can access footage of women being sexually abused on page 1 of the biggest porn sites and google images with the simple click of a mouse.

“Not all men are violent oppressors” the rest sit back and watch. Immediately after telling us that they are our natural protectors, best equipped to defend us against hostile forces, men sit back and watch, or even cheer, as those oppressors roll into town.

A photo of Teheran (Iran) before Khomeini and Kabul (Afghanistan) before the taliban. Where are the headscarves and veils, the nikabs and the burkas?

Elica Le Bon