Golshifteh Farahani: veil, shaved head and flight to the United States, why did she leave Iran permanently?
Golshifteh Farahani was born in Iran. In 2008, she fled her native country. Now 39, the actress is raising her voice in support of the protest movement rocking the Islamic Republic of Iran. Asked by 'Le Monde', the actress of 'Un Divan à Tunis' describes her exile and confides in the veil.
Il y a quinze ans, Golshifteh Farahani fuet l'Iran. in cause? The ' harassment ' and the ' hassles 'Iranian Secret Service , confides the star of the feature film A Divan in Tunis , broadcast on Arte this October 12, 2022, in an interview with the newspaper The world . However, the one who has since obtained French nationality had not always considered this departure. ' I had never imagined building a life outside my country, far from my people. “, she says in her interview.
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The actress amazed by Iranian youth
Née in 1983, Golshifteh Farahani states the gap that separates his generation from today's youth. High school and university students at the helm of a popular uprising conducted since September 16 , when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested by vice squad in Tehran for 'wearing inappropriate clothes', died three days later. A tragedy that has since sparked a wave of unprecedented protests across the country. ' This generation Z has known neither revolution nor war, it was born in the doldrums, stuck in a country that is a dictatorship. But she has Instagram, TikTok, she knows what's going on in the world, she's irreverent, without complex or shyness. I have the impression that she fears nothing ', soutient Golshifteh Farahani.
She shaved her head: why such a gesture?
From her childhood, the actress from a family of artists remembers ' the spirit of freedom who reigned in her house even if ' everything was forbidden '. ' Rebellion is in our DNA, art is our oxygen “, explains the ex-companion of Louis Garel, before evoking ' huge parties 'arranged by his father' where we sang, danced, drank, and talked endlessly '. But the shadow of the regime lurks.' Tragedy was never far away . Joy and sadness are inseparable in Iran. We laugh and we cry at the same time. “, she recalls.
Later, Golshifteh Farahani prefers erase any sign of femininity, going so far as to take a radical decision. ' As a teenager, I shaved my head and pretended to be a boy. So I had a double life. I bandaged my breasts, put on a hat, and went out into the street, on foot or by bike, free, carefree, finally invisible!', she reports. An ultimate gesture to lead a life without constraint.
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Golshifteh Farahani and the veil, 'the price to pay'?
Coming from a generation of young Iranian women forced to wear the veil, Golshifteh Farahani submits for years, not without bitterness. ' We first thought that if this was the price to pay to get rid of the previous regime forever, it was no big deal. My father was silent, my mother said to herself that it was a temporary concession to the religious who, in any case, would leave after two or three years. (...) This veil accompanied a set of political, legal, economic, societal, unbearable discrimination against women. “, she explains. And her judgment on the veil is final.” He camouflaged disgusting morals: in taxis, buses, the street, men brushed past us, touched us, made perverse and degrading gestures, convinced that they had all the rights over us. The law was against women “, she assures.
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His career in the United States earned him the surveillance of the secret services
But the one who all her life in Iran hated being a woman! 'Is not at the end of her troubles. Far from her country of origin, she is quickly called to order when, at 24, she walks an American red carpet without covering her hair. ' When I allowed myself to appear with my head uncovered, at age 24, in New York, the night of the premiere of the Ridley Scott film in which I played, the whole country fell on me. No one supported me. It destroyed me '.
Her career in the United States, on the sidelines of the one she was then also successfully pursuing in Iran, was definitely going to cost her dearly. ' The American film Lies of State attracted all the suspicions of the regime. For seven months, I went from interrogation to interrogation, from the secret services to the Court of the Revolution (...) And then there were the threats (...) Basically, they wanted to enlist me. I thus understood that the people of the Iranian cinema authorized to travel are necessarily called upon to collaborate with the secret services. Otherwise they would be like me in exile ', she says. She adds: ' One day, my dreaded judge, the third figure in the Iranian justice system, responsible for the deaths of several of my father's friends, said to me: ' I have succeeded so far in keeping the secret services, which are hostile to you, on hold. It will not last. Leave. You have twenty-four hours. ' “She then moved to the United States for a while.
From the United States to France, a new life far from Iran
The actress then lost her house and became French because, after this painful ordeal, it was finally in France that the actress found peace. ' It was when I landed in Paris that I felt that women are not guilty. This is the greatest gift France has given me “, confides the one who is followed by more than 14 million subscribers on Instagram. After having lived eight years in Paris, the artist who is now divided between Porto and Ibiza supports the revolt that is brewing in his country of origin. unique mobilization in his eyes ' 'Cause men are willing to die for women's freedom ' , she concludes.
Source journaldesfemmes.fr
