Iranian-born German politician Nargues Eskandari Gruenberg is the vice mayor of Frankfurt and a lifelong campaigner of voices for Iranian democracy and girls’s rights.
She served for six months as Frankfurt’s proxy mayor when then-mayor Peter Feldman was recalled by metropolis residents for being tried in a corruption case. Meanwhile, she led a significant demonstration in Frankfurt after the dying of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in Iran, sparking an ongoing “feminine, life, freedom” motion.
“If we participate in demonstrations in opposition to the Islamic Republic right here, we take into consideration the individuals in Iran who’re vulnerable to being killed through the protest,” she instructed Kayhan Life in an interview.
“We should stand robust with the individuals of the nations that host us in opposition to the federal government that’s hostile to humanity and has held our nation hostage for 46 years,” she added.
Eskandari-Grünberg grew to become vice mayor following the 2021 Frankfurt regional elections and has been a member of the Frankfurt City Council since 2001. She is a member of the Alliance 90/Green’s Party and is the pinnacle of Frankfurt’s Department of Diversity, Anti-Discrimination and Social Cooperative.
Born in Tehran in 1965, she joined the protests to overthrow the Shah as a highschool scholar. After the revolution, she campaigned for democracy beneath the Islamic Republic. In 1983, when she was 18 years outdated, she and her then husband, Kasla Zari, have been arrested and imprisoned on the notorious Evin Prison for protesting in opposition to the Islamic regime. She was pregnant on the time and gave start to her daughter, Mariam, whereas in jail.
Released from jail 18 months later, Eskandari-Grünberg fled his hometown in 1985 along with his 2-year-old German daughter.
She studied German, psychology and accomplished her PhD. She then started her personal follow as a psychotherapist working with the German Red Cross. Eventually, leaving Kasla Zari, who spends seven years in an Iranian jail, she married psychoanalyst Kurt Gruenberg, who had a second little one.
“Iran is my nation,” she mentioned in an interview with Kayhan Life. “Thirty years from now, all I’ve to do is have Iranian music and my soul fly right away in the direction of Iran. No matter how far aside you might be, nobody can separate you out of your hometown.”
“When you allow your nation, you deliver you a small suitcase of disappointment and hope,” she added.
In 2023, Dr. Eskandari-Grünberg took half in a panel dialogue on “Iran’s Struggle for Freedom: Call for Global Solidarity” on the fifteenth Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy. Later that yr, she was nominated for the Council of Europe’s North and South Awards. This has rewarded our dedication to defending and selling human rights, democracy, the rule of legislation, and growing intercultural dialogue.
Her daughter, Mariam Zari, is at present a profitable German actress, screenwriter and director, recognized for her function within the tv sequence “Doppelhaushälfte” (2022-2024).
In 2019, she directed and starred within the documentary Born in Evin. There, she is about to shed some gentle on the circumstances of her start on the notorious Tehran jail. Her movie is the winner of the 2020 German Film Awards for Best Documentary, and she’s going to win the 2020 Diversity Award on the German Screen Actor Awards.