“The regime executes people like us,” says this couple of Iranian lawyers who have taken refuge in Montpellier.

Ehsan Hosseinzadeh et Soheilha Rahimi, à Montpellier où ils vivent depuis le début de l’année 2019, a près avoir fui l’Iran. – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Another country, another life, another language, another job: Ehsan Hosseinzadeh and Soheilha Rahimi, a couple of lawyers committed to fighting the regime in power in the Islamic Republic of Iran, left Iran in 2019 with their son. Settled in Montpellier, they tell the story of a life as refugees.

A portrait of two lives. Two lives of forced exile. Two lives of refugees who fled a dictatorial regime.

In this week when the second anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini is being celebrated, a tragedy that, at the same time, set Iran ablaze, shocked and outraged the entire world, and gave birth to the movement Women, Life, Freedom, we met Ehsan Hosseinzadeh and Soheilha Rahimi, in Montpellier where they have been living “since January 3, 2019”, after arriving in France a few weeks earlier.

In Iran, in Tehran, where they both practiced as lawyers in international business law, in their own firm, their situation had become perilous.

“Threatened by the regime”

Very committed to human rights in their country, in favor of women, or against the death penalty, in particular, Ehsan Hosseinzadeh regularly spoke in several Iranian media on these subjects.

But it was in 2017 that his destiny was tied: beneficiary of a scholarship awarded by the German Foreign Office to work on a human rights program, he was, upon his return“threatened by the regime. He knew that I had been in contact with foreigners, and that, in Iran, is very, very sensitive, you quickly become a target. We received threats, I closed our office. I took our son, and I went to the border between Iran and Turkey, where I lived for several months.”

Finally, he contacted the French embassy in Tehran. The granting of a visa dedicated to “lawyers in danger” allows them to leave their country and reach France. As asylum seekers at first, then as refugees, status granted in 2020.

By chance in Montpellier

Why Montpellier? Pure chance:“We first arrived at a reception center for asylum seekers and refugees in the suburbs of Paris. Afterwards, people are dispatched according to the free places”, remembers Soheila Rahimi.

“This couple is at home here” greets Michaël Delafosse

“I salute their courage. I and the City, through them, support the Women, Life, Freedom movement, and this youth raised against the theocracy of the Iranian mullahs. We are a city of hospitality for those who flee when they are persecuted. “This couple is at home here”  greets the mayor of Montpellier Michaël Delafosse about Ehsan and Soheilha.

"You have to be courageous to defend universal values ​​even in France. It is an honor and a duty to welcome them”  adds Clare Hart, vice-president of the Métropole.

“I met her first, when they arrived. She explained to me that in Iran she was sentenced to six months in prison and sixty lashes… Out of brotherhood we tried to lend a hand, and the City gave her the warmest welcome" recalled Maxime Rosier, president of the Montpellier Bar Association, this week.

He describes Soheila Rahimi as “a fighting woman. The courage it takes to lead this type of fight in Iran, leave your country, learn a language! There is a real gentleness about her. But she has a strength…".

"Courageous, determined"

His colleague, Amin Faraj, a lawyer at the Montpellier bar and director of the Human Rights Institute, says the same thing: “They are courageous, determined people, they have adapted wonderfully, speak French very well. We find ourselves on many initiatives. And they give me information about persecuted Iranian lawyers, so we try to raise awareness about their fate".

“An uprising supported at the international level”

"There will be no peaceful solution in Iran" laments Ehsan Hosseinzadeh when he talks about the Islamic dictatorship in power.

“There have been hundreds of demonstrations, but like Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein or Bashar al-Assad, the regime does not hesitate to kill its own people, to shoot at crowds. And the international embargo has not changed anything. The only solution is an uprising of the people, but supported militarily at the international level.”

Strength and courage are needed to overcome trials and threats, to think about exile and organize an escape with a two-year-old child, to leave knowing that one will never return, that one will never hug one's father or mother again. “It is impossible to come back, it is a definitive departure” Soheila agrees.

Everything to rebuild

“Videos of an interview with me criticizing the regime were broadcast on Iranian TV. I was accused of treason,” Ehsan adds. He lets go:“The regime executes people like us. They believe that we are acting against them, against God, we are enemies of the nation”.

Settled in Montpellier (*), everything then has to be rebuilt: discover another way of life, a country, learn a language, review one's professional pretensions, start again at the bottom of the ladder. To practice as a lawyer again, they would have to go back to school (Soheila Rahimi is enrolled in a master's degree in law), as equivalences do not exist for professionals who are not citizens of the European Union.

New professions

Ehsan has not forgotten: “I was 34, I found myself doing internships with 20-year-olds, I started all over again from scratch even though I already had my degrees. I sometimes had a hard time with this situation, being considered less qualified just because I didn't speak the language well. But today, we are very proud.”

Proud of the respective jobs they now hold: he is a manager and contract manager for a company based in Paris, where he travels back and forth to Montpellier; she is a lawyer in an intellectual property consultancy firm based in Castelnau-le-Lez.

Proud, worried, and melancholic

“We wanted to adapt, integrate, not give up on our dreams. Especially here, where we often talk about foreigners to talk about delinquents. But we have to talk about what is positive, about Moroccans, Algerians, Iranians who work, who are university professors or doctors!” they proclaim.

Also proud of their 8-year-old boy, “who works very, very well at school, he even skipped a grade! And he speaks French better than us!" they admit, laughing.

Mahsa Amini, an icon

On September 16, 2022 in Tehran, a 22-year-old Iranian student of Kurdish origin died, three days after being arrested by the Iranian morality police for "wearing inappropriate clothing".

She was allegedly beaten according to several witnesses and photos released by the hospital where she was taken. The powerful mobilization following her death was at the origin of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Two years later, more and more women are letting their hair down in Tehran. Despite the repression, at their own risk. maxppp

Proud, but also worried, or melancholic, when we talk to them about the situation of their family who remained in Iran. “Mine, we are Azerbaijani Turks, was summoned twice by the intelligence service. To put pressure on” admits Ehsan.  “My family still lives in northern Iran. My cousin was summoned by the secret services. Since she is also a lawyer and we have the same name, they had mistaken her for me…" Soheila supports.

“Our country is like our mother"

These families with whom they of course keep in touch, despite the difficulties: “Social networks are blocked, it is very difficult to connect. And the VPN (a virtual private network, editor's note) is very expensive. And not always secure, it is sometimes hacked by the regime. So we are content to exchange basic information, to give news of our daily lives, without saying anything compromising. “

They say they love their life in Montpellier, their quality of life, “superior in everything, in France, Soheila concedes. But no one wants to be a refugee. And then, our country is like our mother. You can meet other wonderful people in your life, but your mother will remain the sweetest and kindest. That, you will not change. Never."

Where they campaign and inform about the situation in Iran via the association Iran of the world (iranoftheworld.org). I subscribe to read the rest