Friday , 29 March 2024

Narges Mohammadi’s Open Letter to Enrique Mora: I Protest Your Decision to Prioritise the Government’s Survival Over People’s Lives

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – In an open letter to EU —— , Enrique Mora, human rights defender Narges Mohammadi wrote: “How is it that you can travel to Iran to continue the negotiations with the Iranian government and are welcomed by them but they won’t accept your vaccines for the Iranian people? Because the former is for the survival of the government and the latter for the survival of the people.”

Criticising his decision to travel to Iran for Ebrahim Raeisi’s presidential inauguration, she writes: “People in your countries can gather in the streets for hours and demand their rights from the government. But the people of my country are shot dead when they demand their basic living rights, water and the right to live.”

The full text of the letter, a copy of which has been provided to Iran Human Rights, is as follows:

The Honourable Enrique Mora

Political Director

European External Action Service

European Union

Dear Mr Enrique Mora,

It has been reported in the media that you plan on attending the presidential inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi, one the most serious human rights violators in the last 42 years, in the Islamic Republic’s Parliament on August 5. I don’t need to remind you of the violent and brutal crackdown of defenceless protesters in November 2019 and how they turned the streets red with blood for demanding their basic rights more civilly and peacefully than you are accustomed to in the West.

People in your countries can gather in the streets for hours and demand their rights from the government. But the people of my country are shot dead when they demand their basic living rights, water and the right to live.

I don’t need to remind you, as you set your foot on the soil of my land, of what is happening in prisons to the children who only demanded clean water and shouted “we are thirsty” in the province of Khuzestan. I don’t need to tell you about the situation of freedom of expression and prisons and torture and solitary confinement in Iran. I am not talking about the deaths in the street and prisons. The pain is much deeper. I want to remind you of one thing; I would like to talk about the thousands of men and women, doctors and medical staff, who have been abandoned and are dying alone due to the inefficient vaccination process. An unprecedented, brutal and heart-breaking massacre is taking place in the homes of the people of my land. It is not just bullets, it is not just torture, it is not just a prison, but try to understand, it is a silent death in the dark rooms and terrified houses of many Iranians.

Mr Mora,

How is it that you can travel to Iran to continue the negotiations with the Iranian government and are welcomed by them but they won’t accept your vaccines for the Iranian people? Because the former is for the survival of the government and the latter for the survival of the people.

As a human rights activist, I declare that I protest to you and the Iranian government’s decision to prioritise their survival over people’s lives. 

This day will be remembered by me and the people of my land, and you should remember it well too.

Narges Mohammadi

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