Actress Iris Berben (72) has called for solidarity with the protesting people in Iran. “You can’t demand or decree an attitude or solidarity, you have to live it. Solidarity shouldn’t stop where it disturbs our comfort,” said Berben at an event in the Berliner Ensemble on the occasion of the protests in Iran.
The Iranian soccer team, for example, recently set an example in Qatar by not singing the national anthem in their World Cup opening game against England, Berben said. “Solidarity can be exhausting, it can mean making sacrifices (…), but it is indispensable.”
According to the theater, the idea for the evening entitled “Woman Life Freedom” came from the German-Iranian actresses Melika Foroutan, Sarah Sandeh and Jasmin Tabatabai. “These protests are bringing the country and the people back to us. We are full of admiration for the courage and strength of the protesters in Iran,” Sandeh said with a trembling voice on Monday. “May their courage, their resistance, their solidarity be an example for all of us.”
During the three-hour event, actresses such as Meret Becker and Katja Riemann condemned the Iranian government’s repressive course and read texts from Iran and about the country. There was music and a stage talk. The proceeds of the evening should benefit two charities.
The trigger for the current mass protests against the government and the Islamic system of rule in Iran was the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in mid-September. She died in police custody after being arrested by the moral guards for violating the Islamic dress code. According to estimates by human rights activists, at least 450 demonstrators have been killed and around 18,000 protesters arrested since then.
