The world is divided in two between countries where people live in fear and where people live without fear. Or, to put it another way, where the instrument of political persuasion is terror and where the instrument of political persuasion is words. In the first, the authoritarian ones, people keep quiet; In the seconds, people scream, sometimes too much, but this Christmas let us who live in a democracy give thanks.
There is a third category, fragile and fleeting. It is the one of the tyrannical countries where one fine day people lose their fear and start shouting. Suddenly, the fear is general. The rulers fear that they will lose power and the ruled fear the reprisals that will fall on them. Sometimes this feverish stage does not last long. People are scared by the blows of the state apparatus, people return to their mental caves and the country returns to normality. This would be the case of Putin's Russia.
I say this Christmas because, if you look, the vast majority of countries where the law protects individual freedom have Catholic or Protestant roots.
The case of Iran is different. Despite a mounting wave of repression, including thousands of arrests and torture and two public executions to date, the protests against the clerical regime have lasted for more than three months. They erupted after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who was arrested by the morality police on September 13 for not wearing her veil according to the fashion that the ayatollahs demand. Women were the first to take to the streets and today men follow, including Amir Nasr Azadani, a professional footballer.
Nasr Azadani is one of 26 people Amnesty International says are "at grave risk of execution in connection with the nationwide protests." Of the 26, at least 11 are already under sentence of death and 15 are accused of crimes punishable by capital punishment. The soccer player is one of the 15. He is awaiting the summary judgment that the courts usually dictate, organizations that, unlike their equivalents in the democratic countries of Western Europe (Spain today would be an exception), are not politically independent.
The Iranian state accuses Nasr Azadani of belonging to an armed group responsible for killing three security agents on November 16 in the city of Isfahan. Iranian officials have claimed that he confessed to his part in the crime and that they have recordings to prove it. Local sources maintain that Azadani had indeed participated in the protests, but that the rest was a lie because he was not in the area where the murders occurred. Given the prevalence of torture as a method of police interrogation in Iran, it is entirely possible that the footballer confessed to something that he did not.
The question, in any case, would be to give an example to the revolting multitudes. As the always ironic Voltaire said after witnessing the execution of an English sailor for desertion: “Pour encourager les autres”. To encourage others.
The only good news here is that what could be the imminent execution of Nasr Azadani has generated a global campaign in his defense, mainly through social media. The singer Shakira took advantage of the soccer World Cup final last Sunday to express the hope that "the players on the pitch and in the whole world will remember" her fellow Iranian soccer player, who is in danger of death "just for speaking out in favor of the women's rights”.
I have to admit that in the midst of the joy I felt when Argentina won the World Cup, I had a remote hope that Messi would follow Shakira's recommendation and take the opportunity to say something in favor of Nasr Azadani. Messi at that time was the king of the world and, with half the planet watching him on television, his words would have carried enormous weight. Obviously it didn't happen and obviously, on second thought, it wasn't going to happen. First, understandable, because caught up in the euphoria of having achieved his most desired triumph, it would have been too much to expect him to remember a guy he doesn't know in a foreign country. Second because, well, Messi doesn't get to that. Or he hasn't arrived. He still has a chance to say something, maybe on behalf of his champion team. But until now he has not been one to express an interest in politics or human rights, like the vast majority of professional athletes.
There have been exceptions, Ronald Araújo, Barcelona's Uruguayan defender, among them. He made me happy to see him. From the first time I heard Araújo speak, I had the impression that he was a solid guy, with more human status than the average of his professional colleagues. This is what he said on social media: “The fight for human rights cannot be grounds for execution for anyone. All my support is with Amir Nasr Azadani and his family. Respect for life is above all.
There, in that final sentence, is where Araújo is wrong. Respect for life is the supreme value shared by those of us who live in free countries. But it is categorically not "above all" in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia or Iran, to name a few tyrannies. There what is above all else is the imperative of the rulers to stay in power. If they find themselves in difficulties and killing is the solution, their hand does not tremble.
I remember a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Mohamed bin Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia, shortly after an opposition journalist was dismembered by a Saudi death squad. They exchanged effusive smiles and shook hands with affectionate complicity. "Well done, boy!" Was the message that Putin communicated to the Riyadh butcher. The Russian dictator would do the same if he were to meet his Iranian counterpart, the one who sends him drones for his war in Ukraine and orders the public execution of protesters by hanging them from construction cranes.
Here, in the least uncivilized countries in the world, all we can do is scream. Since we can do it without fear, let's insist. Let's do it in defense of human dignity or, as the one who was born 2022 years ago said, out of love for our neighbor.
Merry Christmas.
