Breathe
By Mónica Hernández
A little more than two years ago I witnessed the horror of the networks and the news with the arrest, subsequent beating and death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who was not wearing her head veil properly and did not cover her hair completely, as required by law. These days I am assaulted by images and interpretations of another horrifying case of which few of us speak because we are vaccinated against this horror. Because it is daily, because it riddles us 24/7 and our sensitive fibers are not able to bear it all at the same time.
Ahoo Daryaei is or was a 30-year-old Iranian woman, a doctoral student in French literature at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran. Like Mahsa Amini, the veil did not cover all her hair. Major offense. The moral police confronted her and there was pulling, tugging, shoving and the clothes she wore were torn. The shreds hanging from her were fraying and she decided to pull them off. She went to a staircase and sat down, covered only by what we call undergarments: white and lilac striped panties (bra, panties, panties, panties, panties or whatever you call them) and grape-colored brassiere (top, bra, bra, bra, bra, bra, bra, bra, etc.). She walked barefoot, with her arms crossed under her chest through the main courtyard of the university.
There are several facts that catch my attention: she does not smile. Her image has been used around the world to show that women are still fighting for their rights in a country that in the 1970s was as modern as any Western country. Women dressed in English and French fashions, with miniskirts, heels, boots, high hairstyles and bright colors. They laughed. They smoked. They drank. They drove their own cars. They went out alone with other friends. They were still religious and conservative, because the country has always been conservative. But women had rights when the Shah of Iran landed in Cuernavaca even though he was originally headed for Acapulco. No, he is not smiling now. His gesture is one of sadness, of concern, perhaps of controlled anxiety. There is, however, an enormous dignity in his calm, leisurely steps. In his seat on the steps.
She doesn't run, she doesn't scream, she doesn't run away. She knows what awaits her and her family. She knows that she will not return to finish the course nor will she graduate as a doctor of Gallic Letters. Her 30 years of life will not tell everything she would have liked to tell, to write, to publish. Perhaps she wanted to be a teacher. But we see none of that in the images. She walks crestfallen, pensive. Serene. She does not run away. She knows she has no escape.
No one helps her. She doesn't look at anyone but those who pass by ignore her. As if she were not there. As if she did not exist. As if there were no security guards surrounding her to take her away. As if she didn't have friends, friends, acquaintances at the university. Women pass by wearing hijab, niqab, chador, shayla, al-amira, kimar and maybe one wearing a burqa. The men pass by, look on in disguise and continue on their way. It is indistinguishable if there are any teachers among those who follow their path. No one is interested in going to jail or being found dead for defending someone they may have known. No one throws a piece of cloth at him. The indifference is total. So is the silence that is perceived, broken by the voices coming out of the radios and cell phones of the moral policemen preparing the arrest.
Nothing is known about her. The moral police (they kept her like that, in her underwear, until a commando of women arrived who could approach and touch her) and took her to lock her up. They say to a mental clinic. They say she is mentally ill and is receiving proper psychiatric treatment. They say she is going to be rehabilitated. Her family is giving her up for dead, as is the rest of the world.
A question comes to my mind: What will Iran do with its women? The men are preparing for war, which, although not declared, is not without war against Israel. The men negotiate, meet, decide. The women... Will they resign themselves not to study, not to work, perhaps not to speak, like their neighbors in Afghanistan? Or do we still know about Mahsas Amini, Ahoos Daryaies?
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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