From prison to parliament: Saffi talks about the escalating protests in Iran
Belgian-Iranian MP Darya Safai says that Iranians are finally waking up after decades of repression, as citizens publicly protest and announce alternatives to the current regime. Safai emphasizes that these protests, despite their historical significance, are considered "disturbing" by some political groups in Europe.
Safi, who has been a member of the N-VA party (Flemish Nationalist Party) in Belgium since 2019, has been on the Iranian regime's blacklist for nearly three decades due to her participation in student protests. In 1999, she was arrested during the protests that erupted following the closure of the reformist newspaper "Salam," while her husband, Saeed, managed to flee the country.
After being released on bail, Safi secretly contacted her husband and they fled together from Iran, eventually reaching Belgium in 2000. She quickly became an activist, drawing international attention to women's rights issues in Iran, including her campaigns to allow women to enter stadiums. Her activism paved the way for her election to the Belgian federal parliament in 2019.
Safi criticizes some media and the Western political scene for not recognizing the importance of the Iranian uprising. She warns that Islamic movements and far-left factions in the West sometimes share the same moral ground, united not by common values, but by a shared hostility towards Western civilization.
Safi believes that the current protests represent a historical turning point. Iranians are no longer whispering alternatives to the regime; they are openly declaring names like Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah, as a potential savior from the rule of the Ayatollahs. She sees this moment as one that cannot be easily ignored, as it points to a democratic and secular future that could redraw the map of Iran and challenge Islamic extremism on a global scale.