Female Team “Seleção Feminina de Futebol” of Brazil landed in Brisbane on Wednesday morning, aboard a charter plane, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, operated by Solidaire, wearing a livery of Iranians Mahsa Amini and Amir Nasr Azadani on the tail, and displaying three phrases on its body: “No woman should be forced to cover her head”, “No woman should be killed for not covering her head” and “No man should be hanged for saying this”.
“ARRIVING IN STYLE” The Brazilian team arrived to participate in FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, set to launch on July 20 – Aug 20, 2023. Brazil, are in Group F alongside France, Jamaica and Panama. FIFA and the Brazilian Football Federation (CFB) did not immediately respond when asked to comment by media, the team’s midfielder Marta da Silva -while getting off the plane- commented: “We have to come in style, right?” in a video published on Twitter account of the Female National Football Team of Brazil.
The Dreamliner, has made previous humanitarian flights unrelated to the Brazilian football team in recent months with the tribute’s livery. Mahsa Amini’s death under police custody was the catalyst for mass protests that flashed in Iran on September 2022.
MAHSA AMINI Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old female subsequent death in a hospital in Tehran on 16 September, three days after collapsing in custody of morality police for allegedly failing to wear her headscarf “properly” while passing through a park in the capital. Her death became a case of public opinion that sparked nationwide protests inside and outside Iran against the Iranian rigid regime.
AMIR NASR AZADANI Nasr-Azadani, the 27-year-old pro footballer played for Iran’s national U-16. He spent three seasons with Tractor Sazi of Iran’s Pro League. Nasr-Azadani played for FC Iranjavan Bushehr in 2022 before being accused, and subsequently convicted of allegedly murdering a security guard during the 2018 Iranian protests, according to claims of the Iranian government, he is now serving a lengthy jail sentence for the next 26 years.
Arrival of the national female football team of Brazil in Brisbane, Australia (The Guardian on YouTube)
STORY OF THE DREAMLINER
The owner of this charter Dreamliner, acquired in February 2021, is Italo-Argentine former pilot and filmmaker Enrique Piñeyro, dedicated to his humanitarian organization “Solidaire”, acquired in February 2021, the Boeing 787 livery shows images of Iranian protest figures Mahsa Amini and Amir Nasr Azadani in an attempt to draw attention to the ongoing crisis in Iran. The livery was announced on December 17, 2022, as Mr. Piñeyro’s humanitarian organization Solidaire continues to use the 787 for the safe evacuation and relocation of refugees from around the world.
Enrique made the announcement of the livery, in protest against the Iranian regime via his Twitter account:
To be redirected to @epineyro_ok‘s Tweet, tap on the photo above
ENRIQUE PIÑEYRO’S CHARTER 787
Through Enrique Piñeyro, Solidaire has spent the past year flying Mr. Piñeyro’s 787 around the world on missions to evacuate and transport refugees from war-torn countries.
The project began in March of 2022 with flights from Warsaw that carried Ukrainian refugees to a number of other countries, including Italy and Argentina.
GLOBAL HUMANITARIAN MISSIONS
The NGO was also involved in efforts to evacuate 217 women and children from Afghanistan following the United States’ military withdrawal from the country in July of 2022.
On December 17th, Mr. Piñeyro announced a new livery for his 787 featuring images of the late Ms. Amini and Mr. Nasr Azadani.
WOMEN JOURNALISTS UNDER THREAT
AIPS continue demanding to release all journalists held captive for performing their jobs, three Iranian female journalists Niloofar Hamedi, Elaheh Mohammadi and Narges Mohammadi who all helped break the story of Ms Amini’s death, are still being detained in Iran’s most notorious prisons, Evin Prison.
Photo by: www.unesco.org
NILOOFAR HAMEDI
A 30-year-old journalist with the Sharq newspaper, took a photograph of that moment of grief and posted it on her Twitter account. Alongside it, she wrote: “The black dress of mourning has become our national flag.”
ELAHEH MOHAMMADI
Elaheh writes for the reformist newspaper, Ham-Mihan, covering social issues and gender equality. She reported on Masha Amini’s funeral, and has been detained in Evin Prison since September 2022. She had previously been barred from reporting for a year in 2020 due to her work.
NARGES MOHAMMADI
Narges has worked for many years as a journalist for a range of newspapers and is also an author and Vice-Director of the Tehran-based civil society organization Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC). She is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Evin Prison. She has continued to report in print from prison and interviewed other women prisoners. These interviews were included in her book “White Torture”. In 2022, she won the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Courage Prize.
UNESCO PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE
The three imprisoned Iranian women, two journalists and one human rights activist were awarded 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize: Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are joint winners of both the 2023 International Press Freedom Award by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), and Harvard’s 2023 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. They were named two of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023.
SITUATION IN IRAN?
It is unclear at this point how or when the civil unrest in Iran will end. However, the enduring protests look unlikely to finish soon. The new livery on Mr. Piñeyro’s 787 represents one of many ways in which the rest of the world stands with the people of Iran and is a welcome change that ultimately aligns with what we call, a noble mission.
Credit: AIPS Media
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