I was honored to have the chance to interview Shabnam Maddadzadeh at the Free Iran Gathering 2018 in Paris this week. She is a remarkable woman.
My first impression of Shabnam was her vulnerability, and her humility. She is a rather small human being, almost frail, who sat politely with her hijab tightly wound around her face. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, or was it rage, as she talked of her ordeal at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who put her in prison at the age of 21, for five years, along with her brother. You would not at first think this person spent such a large part of her youth in one of the world's most notorious prisons at the hand of a brutal, murderous dictatorship. However, once she started speaking, her inner-strength was obvious, and it was clear it was this strength that enabled her to survive.
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