The desperate gesture of this exile, who threw himself into the Rhône on December 26, echoes the loneliness and guilt felt by the Iranians in exile in France. A gathering is planned in his memory in Lyon on January 8.
by Richard Schittly (Lyon, correspondent)
The video, since Monday, December 26, goes from phone to phone. We see the face of Mohammad Moradi, filmed in slightly contingent. Sitting on the bank of the Rhône, the 38 -year -old man sets the goal. “I chose this path without any stress, it is not sad,” he said, before announcing his desire to put an end to his life. “I decide to commit suicide in the Rhône river,” he said, showing over his shoulder the watercourse that is guessing between the trees. He registered in French, then in Persian. By claiming his act, Mohammad Moradi wishes to “attract the attention of the authorities and peoples of Western countries to the problem of Iran (…), I prefer to die than to witness the miserable life of the Iranian people”.
When his relatives received the message by SMS and Instagram, they tried to contact him, in vain. Mohammad Moradi threw himself from the Gallieni bridge, under the frightening gaze of passers -by who could not prevent him. Sealed by branches, his body was found by the firefighters in Lyon. Since then, the video continues to circulate, like an intimate and political will.
Discovering the film, several Iranians in exile in Lyon recognized the man crossed a few times in the support for support for the Iranian people. Like that of October, organized by a collective of Iranian students, Place Bellecour. Mohammad Moradi had taken the microphone there, to express his pain and his thoughts turned towards “the Iranian people with empty hands”, faced with “a soulless government, without ethics, very violent”.
“a murder of the “
regime
Arrived in Lyon in 2019 with a student visa, Mohammad Moradi holds a doctorate in history in his country, and followed a French license at the Lyon-III University. Installed with his wife, he worked in a restaurant, according to the biographical snippets transmitted by his compatriots. “I declare that this suicide is not because of my personal problems,” he said in his video, anxious to make it clear that he is not crazy, nor depressed, and even amazed by the reception of the Lyon population. His message upset the Iranians of the city, who felt his distress as the tragic expression of their own dismay.
“I feel guilty for not being useful. I can do nothing for my country. I am ashamed to be there, I have no more life”, testifies Hadis Nabizadeh, 40 years old, in France For fourteen years. The former journalist, worried about her reports on the rights of women and children, works in a school in Lyon, and despairs of the indifference she feels for the fate of her country. For her, the act of Mohammad Moradi should not remain without consequences. “In Iran, those who fight know that they can be killed. Mohammad did not commit suicide, he sacrificed himself, he gave his life for something,” she says.
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