The Second Breath

In her documentary "The Second Breath" (Nafas-e Dovom), director Mojgan Ilanlu follows women’s rights activists and women affected by violence in Iran with her camera. She shows how the ruling politicians not only deliberately ignore violence against women, but also legitimise and justify it through public religious discourse and by blocking legislation to ban such acts.

The filmmaker explains that the Iranian authorities themselves are the primary source of the promotion of violence against women. Women and girls are tortured, beheaded, burned and murdered with impunity and without any legal prosecution. The film reveals that although the authorities acted with extreme harshness against women, Iranian women offered comprehensive resistance over the years – a resistance that ultimately culminated in the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement. Mojgan Ilanlu – who is herself a women’s rights activist and has been arrested and put on trial on several occasions – joined the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement during the filming of this documentary, removed her headscarf and was subsequently imprisoned.