Greetings to the audience.
I would like to thank Shima Babaei and all those who invited me to this ceremony.
My name is Mersedeh.
I am 39 years old.
I trained in banking management, but because of my passion for sport, I also qualified as a fitness trainer and started working in this field. I’m also the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, Raza.

I’m one of the women who lost my eye during the movement for women’s rights.
I’ve always protested against the anti-women laws that govern our country.
That’s why, with the start of the women’s movement, I felt it was my civic duty to stand alongside people in the streets to protest for life and freedom.
To protest against being denied the smallest and most natural of human rights, such as the right to choose my clothes, which had been taken away from me.
In a country whose constitution is based on hostility towards women and assigns no value to the woman that I am, I stood up to protest.

I fought for this right first for myself and then for my daughter, believing that, like other citizens of the world, I should have the right to protest when my rights were being violated.
But Iran is not like other countries and, according to the Islamic Republic, we are not considered to be citizens of that country and we do not have the right to protest.
In these circumstances, the removal of the headscarf has become for us a symbol of national defiance, enabling us to let the world know that the Iranian people no longer want the authoritarian regime of the Islamic Republic and do not recognise it as legitimate.

The Islamic Republic retorted to my protest with bullets. I was on the streets almost every night to take part in the demonstrations. One night, as always, without a weapon in my hands, I was chanting slogans with my mother and friends when one of the forces of oppression casually and without hesitation shot me in the right eye. When I was rushed to hospital, my face bloodied, I took a photo of myself and shared it, showing the victory sign with my hand and smiling. After that, I continued to take part in the demonstrations, even with just one eye.
This incident irritated the Islamic Republic even more and this time they raided my home to arrest me, turning everything upside down.
But they couldn’t manage to arrest me. At the time, I was undergoing ophthalmological treatment in medical centres, and eventually, because of the lack of security and the need for ophthalmological treatment, I was forced to leave my country.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of groups such as “United for Iran” and the “Munich Security Conference”, I was recently able to travel to Germany.
I am here with you today to tell you that, as a woman who took part in the women’s movement for life and freedom, I lost the sight in my right eye to bullets fired by the forces of the Islamic Republic. However, I have no regrets about my protest and my actions, and if I went back, I would protest again and shout in the streets for the life and freedom of women, and I would fight against the ruling dictatorship. I will strive to make our voices heard by the whole world.
I believe that even with only one eye, I can still celebrate freedom.

I urge all those who hear my voice to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people on this difficult journey, and not to be content with symbolic expressions of solidarity and condemnation.

The Islamic Republic is not only the enemy of the Iranian people; it represents a dangerous threat to humanity as a whole.
Stand up to these criminals and know that if you remain silent today, the atrocities of the Islamic Republic will harm you tomorrow too.