WION World Pulse | ‘I was beaten up for not wishing death to America’: Iranian actress Elnaaz Norouzi shares chilling school memory

Israel and the US launched aerial strikes in Iran on February 28, which killed the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and started off the current war. Khamenei's death led to both celebrations and mourning in the country, while a faction began preparing for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran. While speaking at the WION World Pulse summit on Wednesday (Mar 18), Iranian-German actress Elnaaz Norouzi said, “There are92 million people in Iran; more than 80 per cent, according to the survey by Gamaan, are against the regime.”

Speaking about her experience of growing up in Iran, she recalled, “In school, we were told to chant death to America, and as a six-year-old, I wouldn’t know what it meant.” And when she refused to wish death on anybody, she said, “I was beaten up in school.” Her mother changed her school multiple times, as she strongly opposed the treatment being given to her child at an educational institute.

Norouzi said, “I was born under a dictatorship. For us, back then, it was all normal. But when I was 4 or 5, the conversation about fleeing the country had already started at home.”

Her family decided to move to Germany, where life was different, the actress said, emphasising on freedom.

Describing the uprising in her own country after the killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini because “her hijab was improper, not missing”, she said Iranians were angry. She mentioned how the makhna (hijab for children) was imposed upon her when she was a child.

She asked, “Why is the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) protecting the Basij force… to keep people in control. It's because they know people are against the regime. Hence, they have the IRGC and the Basij in Iran.”