The video, since Monday, December 26, goes from phone to phone. We see the face of Mohammad Moradi, filmed from a slight low angle. Sitting on the bank of the Rhône, the 38-year-old stares at the goal. “I chose this path without any stress, it’s not sad”, he says, before announcing his desire to end his life. “I decide to commit suicide in the Rhône river”, he said, pointing over his shoulder to the stream we can make out between the trees. He recorded himself in French, then in Persian. By claiming his act, Mohammad Moradi wishes “to draw the attention of the authorities and people of Western countries to the problem of Iran (…)I would rather die than witness the miserable life of the Iranian people”.
When his relatives received the message by SMS and Instagram, they tried to contact him, in vain. Mohammad Moradi threw himself off the Gallieni bridge, under the frightened gaze of passers-by who could not prevent him. Held up by branches, his body was found by firefighters in Lyon. Since then, the video has continued to circulate, like an intimate and political testament.
Upon discovering the film, several Iranians in exile in Lyon recognized the man they met several times in rallies in support of the Iranian people. Like the one in October, organized by a group of Iranian students, Place Bellecour. Mohammad Moradi had taken the microphone there, to express his pain and his thoughts turned towards “the empty-handed people of Iran”in front of “a soulless, unethical, very violent government”.
“A murder of the regime”
Arrived in Lyon in 2019 with a student visa, Mohammad Moradi had a doctorate in history in his country, and was following a French degree at Lyon-III University. Installed with his wife, he worked in a restaurant, according to the biographical snippets transmitted by his compatriots. “I declare that this suicide is not because of my personal problems”, he declares in his video, anxious to make it clear that he is not mad, nor depressed, and even amazed by the reception of the Lyon population. His message shocked Iranians in the city, who saw his plight as a tragic expression of their own dismay.
“I feel guilty for not being helpful. I can’t do anything for my country. I’m ashamed to be here, I have no more life”, testifies Hadis Nabizadeh, 40, in France for fourteen years. The former journalist, worried for her reports on the rights of women and children, works in a school in Lyon, and despairs of the indifference she feels for the fate of her country. For her, the act of Mohammad Moradi should not remain without consequence. “In Iran, those who fight know they can be killed. Mohammad did not commit suicide, he sacrificed himself, he gave his life for something,” she argues.
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