‘You have to fight to stay alive’: in conversation with political activist Shiva Mahbobi
CW: mentions of torture, violence against women, death.
This interview was conducted at the Cambridge Union, where Shiva Mahbobi spoke to the Chamber on the 3rd of February. Thanks to Shibhangi Ghose for facilitating.
Shiva Mahbobi at the Union. By Photography Department at The Cambridge Union
Shiva Mahbobi was arrested for the first time in Iran when she was just twelve years old. Four years later, she was arrested again. For over three years, Mahbobi was tortured, imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement for her activism. The co-founder of the Campaign to Free Political Prisoners in Iran sat down with us before her Union event to discuss the revolution in Iran and her experience as a women’s rights activist.
Mahbobi’s years spent incarcerated have informed her fight against the injustice of Iranian imprisonment. ‘It really fuelled my fire, because when you are imprisoned you are in the most helpless and powerless position you can be. No matter how strong you are, they can just do anything to you. When I came out, I couldn't forget my friends who were dying in front of my eyes and I couldn't do anything whatsoever.’ She spent seven months in solitary confinement, imprisoned in a two metre wide cell. ‘I can't say I chose not to be depressed because that's not a choice. People get depressed and it's okay - of course I was depressed too. But I chose to use that anger and depression to do something about it, for my friends at least.’
Even after having fled, I ask Mahbobi if she carries any recurring terrors from her years in prison. ‘I don't think fear stops me from continuing because if fear could’ve stopped me, I would've died in prison a long time ago.’ Still, ‘every single morning when I wake up and look at the news, I just think, who else died in prison today - who else was arrested? I think that's something I will never get used to.’ Every week, Mahbobi says she relives the horror. ‘Especially on Saturdays, that's when they usually execute people. It is a weekend. You would imagine you should rest. I wake up with this horrible feeling in my stomach thinking, did they execute anyone else?’
Horror, she says, is a word that does not even come close to the experience. Life in an Iranian prison, as a woman and activist, was more harrowing and deeply painful. However, for Mahbobi, ‘You come to the point where you either have to stop, or you continue. I think I've decided I need to be a fighter for a long time. That's the least I can do.’ For Mahbobi, this is not a choice; her fight is the only option. ‘You learn from the time you are a little girl that you have to fight. What are the other choices? That's the problem. In other countries, girls are victims of so-called honour killings. What are their choices? If they look at you as a second class citizen, as a slave, what do you do other than fight? You have to fight to stay alive.’
Shiva Mahbobi. By Photography Department at The Cambridge Union
Immediately after being released from prison, Mahbobi resumed her activism. But, ultimately fearing for her life, Mahbobi fled Iran and turned to Turkey for asylum in 1992. ‘As an immigrant you always start from zero, unfortunately. But, it's really helped me getting to know people with different experiences. Turkey was a different experience, working on refugee cases and women's rights.’ From Turkey, she moved to Canada and now the UK. Nonetheless, she retains her connections with Iran: ‘I think you take all those experiences and emotions with you and it's within you, it is almost part of you.’
Her fellow Iranian women remain central to her activism: ‘I think one of the things that I'm really proud of is that in every country I’ve been too, I've been able to be the voice of women in Iran and what they are going through. I'm smaller than being their voice. I would always say echoing their voice. Every woman has a voice.’
For Mahobi, this fight is also an international one. She has previously protested against female genital mutilation (FGM), breast ironing, and the stoning to death of Nigerian women like Amina Lawal. She maintains that emphasising the revolution in Iran brings attention to atrocities in other countries as well. Nonetheless, it is hard to keep the international focus on any one plight for long enough. ‘I think they should give equal attention to Iran as well, because they are human beings as well and they are getting killed by the same government who sends weapons to Russia. We've been dealing with it for 44 years and it breaks my heart that someone like Gina Mahsa Amini should have to die and many other people, for the world to give it attention.’
Has enough been done by the international community in support of the protests in Iran? ‘No, I don't think they've done enough. If they would've done enough, we still wouldn't have tens of thousands of political prisoners, and we wouldn't have people dying under torture.’
Shiva Mahbobi. By Photography Department at The Cambridge Union
However, Mahbobi hopes that in a year, we will still be talking about a revolution that is itself ongoing: ‘Because this time it is really different. We had massive demonstrations in 2009, and one in 2019 where 1,500 people were killed. But I think this time is really different.’ This time, the revolution has the capacity for lasting change. ‘First of all, it's woman led, and that says something because the population who have been the most suppressed are taking to the streets against the hijab as a symbol of that oppression. Secondly, it has been continuous. We are in the fourth month I believe. And thirdly, we have never had this much international attention on the issue.’
In the end, for Mahbobi, ‘it's about humanity and we are all human beings that are connected from one race. It doesn't matter when we are born, if we care about humanity.’