While Azizpour is preparing for the staging of a play at Rommen stage in Oslo, his thoughts are with his family and friends in Iran. It is rare that he is able to contact them. Every day the thoughts revolve around the same questions: Are they doing well? Are they alive? The need to find out is great. When news meets the Norwegian Kurds, we try to call the family together via WhatsApp. The phone rings and rings, but no one answers the other end. It has become the new normal for Azizpour and several other Iranians and Kurds in Norway. For several weeks, Iranian authorities have restricted internet access in the country as a result of the riots following the death of Kurdish-Iranian Jina Amini. Azizpour with a poster with the text “woman, life, freedom” in several languages. Photo: Privat But two weeks ago he finally got a phone call from a family member. – Are you all right, asks Azizpour. – Yes it is going well. We just have a bit of a cold, they answer. – Have a cold? The family member tells Azizpour to be quiet. He shows off parts of his body. His hands, legs, feet, stomach and back, before he repeats himself again: – We just have a cold. There are a lot of people here who have caught a cold. But we are doing well. We can do this. What Azizpour sees are gunshot wounds to several parts of the body. The tears press on, and he feels a growing anger. It is then that Azizpour realizes what they mean by “cold”. The family fears that the authorities will overhear the conversation. Therefore, they must be careful what they talk about. No one can find out that they have participated in the demonstrations. Hear Azizpour describe the conversation himself. It goes well. He also gestured with his hand “it’s fine, just be quiet” and I just “huh, what’s going on?”.”No, we just have a cold”.. It was strange. But then I realized when he started to show. Picked up his t-shirt and showed his arm. Then I understood. Saw several gunshot wounds. So just “okay, do you have a high fever?” “We’re fine but a lot of people have colds” which means a lot of people have been shot. news knows the identity of the family member and has verified the images of the injuries, but anonymises them for the sake of the family’s own safety. Fear of surveillance – “We have caught a cold” means that they have been shot. “They give us powerful vaccines” means they want to kill us, Azizpour explains. He says that the rest of the conversation followed the same code track and was short. The app WhatsApp has always been the link between him and his family in Iran. But the unstable internet in Iran and the fear of being monitored make it even more difficult to reach each other. Too much has changed since Jina Amini died. In September, the 22-year-old was arrested in Tehran for wearing the hijab incorrectly. Three days later, she died in custody at a hospital in the capital. It triggered a series of protests against the strict regime. Azizpour’s family is also among those who took to the streets. The regime has responded to the protesters with shots, arrests and the death penalty. According to the UN, more than 300 people have lost their lives as a result of “the authorities’ response to the protests. The Oslo-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR) believes the number is 416 killed, including 51 children. In addition, over 16,000 people have been arrested as a result of the demonstrations. The death of Jina Amini has sparked some of Iran’s biggest riots. Many believe there is a revolution taking place now. Photo: JACK GUEZ / AFP And just a couple of days after the death of Amini, the authorities began to restrict the internet in the country. – I get scared when they don’t answer, because I don’t know what it might mean. Is the internet down? Has anything happened to them? Then the mind wanders, and you just go and wait for an answer. Azizpour is not alone in this. All over the world, Iranians are struggling to get in touch with family members as a result of the internet being shut down, says head of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. – There are many people who contact us and ask for help, but we are a small organisation, so we do not have the opportunity to answer everyone, unfortunately, says Amiry-Moghaddam. – Internet down for up to eight hours every day Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo, Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi, says that the authorities shut down the Internet to get control of a situation they consider to be completely out of control. – It is an attempt to stop the mobilization and the protests, both inside and outside Iran. Now the internet is down for up to eight hours a day. It usually happens after 4 p.m., because that’s when most people get home from work. A young woman has let her hair down in Iran during one of the many demonstrations in the country. Photo: AFP In 2019, the authorities closed the internet for 12 days – at the time due to massive protests against high petrol prices. But it would prove to hit the Iranian economy hard. Therefore, it is not a complete shutdown in the same way as in 2019. – The authorities want to put an end to mobilization and protest, but at the same time they have to make money. – We can do something about that in Norway. Back on the Rommen stage, Azizpour fishes out the phone and tries to call the family one more time. This time on a regular land line. But now it doesn’t go through. It doesn’t even ring. Azizpour gets angry. Angry at not knowing what’s going on, angry at the regime, angry at everyone. But he is also afraid. Azizpour is an actor at Det Norske Teatret. Here from the performance “Tordivelen flyg i skösketa” at Det west norske teatret in Bergen. Photo: Andreas Roksvåg Nevertheless, it is enough now. That is why he talks to news. He wants to tell about what is happening. About the wounds, the injuries and the codes. He does not want to let fear trump hope. – They are so insanely brave. We have family members who still have gunshot wounds but still continue to take to the streets and fight. He says that their courage gives hope. When Speaker of the Storting Masud Gharahkhani spoke out against the Iranian regime in early November at the latest, it also gave hope. Azizpour wants more people in Norway to speak out about what is going on in Iran in order to help the protesters a little along the way. – It is those down there who can make the biggest change. But that they can be seen and heard, we can do something about that here in Norway. news has tried to get a comment from the Iranian embassy, but has not received a reply.
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Talking in codes with the family in Iran – news Culture and entertainment
