Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi: 'Iran's regime is weaker but more ferocious.'

"Until recently, the Iranian regime enjoyed considerable power, and its long arm extended to other Middle Eastern countries: it financed Hezbollah in Lebanon, creating a dire situation for the population; it supported Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship in Syria; and the Houthis in Yemen, which created instability there. But now these scenarios have profoundly changed, and the Iranian regime is clearly much weaker. Precisely for this reason, it attacks the population with ferocity and attempts to mask this weakness with an iron fist." This was stated by Iranian activist and lawyer Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, today inaugurating the 26th edition of Pordenonelegge. For the occasion, Ebadi presented her new book, "Until We Are Free: Iran, My Fight for Human Rights."

With clarity and determination, Shirin Ebadi analyzed the situation in her country, Iran, which she had to leave long ago due to the regime's persecution, taking refuge in exile in London. "Recently, 20,000 people have been arrested on charges of spying for Israel, and many have been executed for the same charge," she said. "The truth is that they simply fear that people will take to the streets to demand the end of this regime: that's why they're creating a climate of terror."

Shirin Ebadi, however, remains confident that this state of affairs will end, explaining: "The regime could fall as a result of two factors that should put pressure on the Islamic Republic's system: the population internally and the economic factor externally. Iran has never been so isolated: Russia is careful not to intervene to help, and so is China. The regime is currently in profound isolation. Europe's behavior, however, does not help the Iranian people who are trying to free themselves from the regime. Europeans too often compromise with the Iranian regime, to keep it at bay and satisfy it. Today, we ask Europeans not to prolong the life of our dictator and to allow us to fight and win this battle."

Shirin Ebadi cites many examples to support her appeal: "I believe it was embarrassing for your culture to cover up nude statues, censoring them at the Capitoline Museums for Rohani's visit to Rome a few years ago. It's disrespectful to your history. Just as I believe it was a terrible decision to release the person you arrested, who was close to the Iranian regime, a few months ago. He was supposed to be extradited to the US, but was freed and exchanged for Cecilia Sala. This behavior strengthens the regime and makes European citizens in Iran less safe. This is why I ask European governments not to aid totalitarian regimes."

Shirin Ebadi reserves a final thought for the Iranian women's Life and Freedom movement: "It played a decisive role in changing Iranian society. It pushed back the regime, preventing the Iranian parliament from implementing the law that would have harshened punishments for "poorly veiled" women. It has become impossible to enforce it at a social level: you can't arrest or persecute hundreds of thousands of women without the veil. Today, society has changed, and it shows on the streets of Iran. Thousands of women don't wear the veil, and they continue the fight against the regime."

During a meeting with the accredited press at the festival, accompanied by Pordenonelegge curator Alberto Garlini, the president of the Pordenonelegge Foundation, Michelangelo Agrusti, called Shirin Ebadi "a global icon of human rights commitment, because she masterfully embodies an emblematic connection: that between books and freedom." (by Paolo Martini)