"The people of Iran are the ones who suffer the most in all of this."

Barcelona“The only thing we can do is resist and make radical art. Make underground culture. For the last ten years, I couldn't work in Iran. I had to create and perform plays in my friends' apartments. It was very hard and very risky. These days, in Barcelona, ​​I've seen many demonstrations. In Iran, they would have shot people without fear,” explains Hossein Zoghi, an Iranian journalist, theater director, and actor. “The image that people mainly see, and the one the Iranian government shows, is of women praying. But there's another image, which happens in homes, where women are free. They sing, they dance, they love music. Really, they just want an ordinary life. I have to be the messenger for these people,” he adds.

The Iranian artist, along with Mahsa Moheballi, a writer, literary critic, and screenwriter, has taken refuge in Catalonia after suffering repression and censorship from the Iranian government. They arrived before the outbreak of the war and are participating in theIrídiaFest this Friday at the CCCBOn an opening day dedicated to art as a tool for resistance, denunciation, and defense of freedom of expression, the event, which will run until Saturday at Paral·lel 62 (featuring concerts by Faixa, Aïta Mon Amour, and Hajar, and a DJ set by Baiuca), is promoted by Irídia and Say it Loud and has the participation and support of Artists at Risk, an international network that has helped victims of more than 100 armed conflicts by relocating them to over 300 partner centers worldwide. "When you have a network, you are stronger than if you are alone. Associations of artists, actors, or people who work for freedom of expression around the world are very important," says Zoghi.

The arrest of Moheballi

Moheballi is one of Iran's most prominent literary voices. Her works address gender, social crises, and community challenges. queer, something very risky in Iran. Among his books, the following stand out: Don't worry (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2021; also titled In case of emergency), which was highlighted by The New Yorker as one of the best books published in the United States in 2022. Four years ago, law enforcement raided her home. "They took all my electronic devices. Imagine what it must be like for a writer who keeps all her imagination on her laptop and in her notes to lose everything. They took me to jail. They asked me a lot of personal questions and told me I was lucky to have a husband; otherwise, they would have accused me of being a prostitute. They asked me to reveal who the real person in my book was. I went crazy; it was literature, it was fiction, there was no real person," she explains.

"Then they forced me to sign a bunch of documents where I promised not to write about society, addictions, women, LGBTQ+ issues, or left-wing or right-wing parties. They also took photos of all my Instagram and Facebook statuses and forced me to say I would never do that again. It's an impossible situation. It's an impossible situation. Due to the critical nature of her work, the publication and republication of her texts have been banned in Iran.

The writer doesn't believe that the war will free them from a regime that makes the exercise of any freedom impossible. "Ali Khamenei is dead, but the election of Mojtaba Khamenei As leader, he makes it clear that the Islamic Republic wants to send a message: there will be no structural changes within the government, he explains. The three actors (Islamic Republic, United States, and Israel) ignore the true rights and demands of the Iranian nation, and the people of Iran are the ones who suffer the most in the midst of it all. The war has not turned out to be what many Iranians expected! People thought that a US and Israeli attack on Iran would finally lead to regime change and freedom, but now we are mainly witnessing destruction, widespread bombing, and many casualties.