Nadine Oliveri Lozano in the company of clerics, dressed in a chador, the traditional Iranian veil, going to an important Shiite shrine in Qom, south of Tehran. The image of this visit, which took place while the Iranian regime has been violently repressing since mid-September a major protest movement whose slogan – “women, life, freedom” – is precisely opposed to dress requirements made to women, quickly ignited social networks.
While at least 76 women are killed by the Islamic regime for having chanted woman, life, freedom and for having said no to the compulsory veil, Mrs. Nadine Olivieri Lozano, the Swiss ambassador to Iran, visits a mausoleum in Qom in Chador. pic.twitter.com/hLTgR34awu
— letters from Tehran (@LettresTeheran) February 22, 2023
Nadine Oliveri Lozano legitimizes the brutality of the Islamic Republic, says in the Blick Saghi Gholi, co-founder of the Free Iran Switzerland movement: “That the Swiss ambassador is visiting this shrine is simply shocking”, all the more so because “the fact that she appears in a chador while thousands of women are fighting for power take off their headscarves. According to the UN, some 15,000 demonstrators have already been arrested, sometimes tortured. Several people were killed and sentenced to death.
While girls and women in Iran are getting beaten, jailed, shot in the eye & even killed for shouting ‘#woman_life_freedom’ and saying no to mandatory hijab, Swiss ambassador to Tehran wears ‘Chador’ over her compulsory hijab to please the Iranian establishment #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/Zj6lGm3dh7
– Maryam Moqaddam Maryam Moqaddam (@MaryamMoqaddam) February 22, 2023
Respect for the “dress protocol in force”
Contacted by the RTS, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) indicates that “during the visit to the religious site, the dress protocol in force for women was respected”, adding that “interreligious dialogue is of great importance in the current context”. The FDFA also specifies that “Switzerland clearly and repeatedly takes a position on human rights violations in Iran”.
Read also: “In Iran, the abuses of the regime have lasted for forty-four years”
This new controversy comes in a climate of tension around the action of Swiss diplomacy in Iran – where it notably represents the interests of the United States within the framework of its policy of good offices. Alain Berset had indeed found himself under fire from critics a few days ago, when it was revealed that the President of the Confederation had sent an official message of congratulations to Tehran on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Republic, on February 11. An initiative described as “shameful” and “insult to the victims” by several federal parliamentarians, as well as Swiss associations supporting the protest in Iran. Alain Berset replied that the message had been “modified to emphasize the importance, for Switzerland, of respect for human rights”, and was also in accordance with “diplomatic practices”.
Read the open letter from the collective “Woman, life, freedom”: Switzerland’s “good wishes” to the Islamic Republic of Iran, an insult to the victims
The memory of Micheline Calmy-Rey in 2008
This affair, just like the reaction of the Swiss authorities to it, echoes the criticisms which had already been aroused, in 2008, by the official visit of Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey to Iran. At the time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was photographed all smiles, wearing a scarf over her hair, during a meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sparking a number of indignant reactions from all political parties. The socialist had then swept the critics“It’s not a sign of submission. It is respect for the customs of a country that invites.
Fifteen years later, the context is very different, the revolt today is specifically directed once morest the obligation to wear the veil. The wave of protests once morest the regime indeed erupted following the death in captivity of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022. The 22-year-old had been arrested three days earlier by the morality police for allegedly violating strict women’s dress code.
Micheline Calmy-Rey herself seems to be aware that times have changed: the former Federal Councilor participated last October to a collective action in support of Iranian women, filming themselves cutting a lock of hair.
