When Maryam Mohitmafi arrived in Ireland with her husband two years ago, she was seeking a better life. A life where she could be free to choose what to wear, where to work and what religion to practice. A life with “basic freedoms” that are not available to women in her home country of Iran.
“The government do their best to brainwash you… I always wanted to take control of my life, but it was not possible for me,” she tells Róisín Ingle on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
From her new home in Dublin, the 31 year-old watches on as the women of Iran fight for those freedoms. Over the past month, thousands have taken to the streets to protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died while in the custody of the country’s ‘morality police’.
In displays of defiance, Iranian women cut their hair and burned their hijab. “It was a very emotional moment in my life, because that was the picture I always wanted to see,” she says.
Protein: Are we eating enough of it? And is ‘high protein’ branding just a fad?
Cameron Diaz: ‘I left movies because I wanted to live my life differently. We started our family, and that was all I wanted to do’
Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin: ‘I mourned friendships for too long that were actually past their time’
‘The phone would ring and it would be Mike Scott from the Waterboys or Bono from U2. Everyone wanted to talk to my father’
In this episode, we also hear from Iranian journalist Yeganeh Rezaian, who lives in Washington DC with her husband and son. She says that the protests come as a result of pent up frustration and anger towards the strict regime which rules the Iranian people.
“This is not just about the killing of a young woman,” she explains.
Both women share their own personal run-ins with the ‘morality police’ and why they believe change is finally on the way.
You can listen back to the full conversation in the player above, or wherever you get your podcasts.
