Reyhaneh’s voice against the oppression of Iranian women

Seven winters in Tehran **

de Steffi Niederzoll

German documentary, 1 h 37

Seven winters is the time Reyhaneh Jabbari spent in prison between her arrest in 2007 and her execution in 2014. The young woman, aged just 19, had been sentenced to death for having fatally stabbed the man who was about to rape her. But in Iran, self-defense is worthless. Especially when you’re a woman and your attacker is an important man working for the security services. Prosecution investigation, manipulated trial, destroyed evidence and, in the end, a conviction for “premeditated murder”. It is up to the victim’s family to choose the sentence, in this case death by hanging. Shole Pakravan, Reyhaneh’s mother, begged for their forgiveness until the very last moments, nothing helped.

The story of her struggle to save her daughter is at the heart of this documentary directed by German director Steffi Niederzoll. A poignant film, because to the story and the testimonies facing the camera of her family are added the voice of Reyhaneh herself, recorded during visits to the prison visiting room or telephone calls. She bears witness to the oppression suffered by women in her country and to a struggle waged on behalf of her fellow prisoners, all sold by their families or raped. “If we defend ourselves, we are condemned, if we resist we are condemned and if we submit we are also condemned. I try to make my cry heard on behalf of all these girls, even if the price to pay is my life”, she explains. She will thus refuse the offer of forgiveness made by the son of her attacker on the condition that she reconsider her accusations of rape.

Since her execution, which triggered a wave of international indignation, Reyhaneh has become a symbol for all Iranian women and her texts, read by the Iranian actress in exile Zar Amir Ebrahimi, bring all their tragic force to the protest that erupted in Iran six months ago.

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