As of: 09/29/2022 8:07 p.m
The protests in Iran also occupied the Bundestag today – in a current hour. Foreign Minister Baerbock confirmed that she intends to advocate sanctions at EU level.
It was an extremely emotional debate in the Bundestag on the situation in Iran. The people there, led by Iranian women, have been demonstrating for around two weeks – and they’re loud.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says: “Even if the Internet is now switched off, we see and hear these women.”
Various sources speak of at least 70 dead and well over 1,000 arrests. Gabriela Heinrich from the SPD found the right words with a quote from the Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad:
They’re scared of my hair, they’re scared of my voice, they’re scared of my body. As a woman, I can scare an entire regime.
Powerful speeches by MPs
The speeches by members of the Bundestag with an Iranian or Kurdish background were particularly impressive. Green Party leader Omid Nouripour grew up in Tehran and says he gets a lot of news from the country. For example the one about Hadiz, a young woman who didn’t survive a demo.
Hadiz said to a friend: I’m nervous, but I’m glad I’m going there because maybe the demonstrations will change something and we can breathe freely again. A few hours later she is dead, six bullets in her body, she was simply gunned down.
Bijan Djir-Sarai from the FDP also grew up in Iran: “I had to leave Iran in 1987 when I was 11 years old. I saw war and human rights violations in Iran with my own eyes. Anyone who has experienced first-hand how lack of freedom feels, will stand up for freedom every day and unequivocally.”
Gökay Akbulut from the Left Party has a Kurdish migration history and gave her speech in a t-shirt with one of the slogans being heard all over Iran right now:
The slogan of the Kurdish women’s movement “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” – in English – women, life, freedom – has found popularity worldwide. You want to live independently.
Criticism of Chancellor Scholz’s course
It’s not the usual demonstrations and strikes, you hear that again and again in this debate. Iran is facing a revolution and the mullahs’ regime is on the verge of collapse. Against this background, Annette Widmann-Mauz from the CDU/CSU expressed her disappointment with Chancellor Scholz:
It is more than shameful that the Chancellor did not address the situation in Iran in his 15-minute speech to the United Nations.
Baerbock summons Iranian ambassador
Foreign Minister Baerbock has outlined the steps she has taken in recent days to obtain tougher sanctions against Iran.
I summoned the ambassador and on Monday we made it very clear on behalf of Germany at the Human Rights Council in Geneva: Iranian authorities must stop their brutal actions against demonstrators immediately. The death of the people urgently needs to be clarified. And in the group of EU states, I am currently doing everything to ensure that we introduce sanctions.
And Omid Nouripour from the Greens finally insisted that these sanctions had to come quickly: “Because of the incredible courage of these women, who pull their headscarves in front of security guards with a gun in their hands and scream in their faces that they can’t do that anymore you can only fall on your knees.”
Current hour on the situation in Iran
Bianca Schwarz, ARD Berlin, September 29, 2022 6:52 p.m