Honorary citizen of Riace awarded to Maysoon Majidi

(ANSA) – RIACE, 04 NOV – “This evening, handing over the honorary citizenship of Riace to Maysoon Majidi, who is finally free, is a great emotion. Instead of welcoming her and giving her the freedom and security she was looking for, Italy put her in prison on the accusation of being the smuggler of the sailing ship on which she arrived, a story made up of approximate translations, lack of cultural mediators, indications that were not such, as demonstrated by her recent release from prison”. This was said by the deputy Laura Boldrini speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the ceremony for the honorary citizenship that the Municipality of Riace awarded to Maysoon Majidi, the Kurdish-Iranian activist released on 22 October by the Court of Crotone after 10 months of prison. “The trial is not over yet – recalled Boldrini – but I am confident that the judging judiciary will clarify Maysoon’s story. Giving her honorary citizenship of Riace today is a nice gesture by the mayor Mimmo Lucano, a way to make her feel that the Italy is also capable of welcoming and listening to those who escape from oppressive regimes and fight for their rights.” During the ceremony Maysoon Majidi told her story as an activist fleeing the Iranian part of Kurdistan. “We women, in the eyes of the regime – she said – are just objects, destined for submission. We flee out of fear and with the hope of finding a dignified life. I thought I had arrived in a country of freedom and rights and instead I was arrested without understand why. Ten months, of which two without a translator and therefore without anyone being able to explain the accusations to me. My body and my spirit suffered further damage day after day while I was locked up in that cell ‘Europe offer us not only protection, but welcome us as equal members of society. Please amend the Cutro Decree. If you want to protect your borders, you must sanction exploiting governments and not expose defenseless refugees to the risks imposed by this law. Let Europe be a place that gives us back the security, humanity and dignity that were taken from us in our country.” For Mayor Mimmo Lucano, MEP of the Green and Left Alliance, “Maysoon Majidi is a heroine of our times tormented by the horrors of wars who sacrificed her young existence to fight against regimes, dictatorships, fundamentalisms and wars. She fights for a new world and to affirm ideals of freedom, justice, democracy, equality and social redemption of women and the oppressed. Riace continues to be the country of hospitality, without being able to count on public funds. And the honorary citizenship awarded to Maysoon confirms the role and the symbolic power of a place like ours, the epicenter of a Mediterranean that embraces migrants and does not reject them”. (HANDLE).