{"id":342176,"date":"2026-02-03T14:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=342176"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:54:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T13:54:03","slug":"a-voice-for-iran-when-silence-was-easier-remembering-rita-prof-sussmuth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/a-voice-for-iran-when-silence-was-easier-remembering-rita-prof-sussmuth\/","title":{"rendered":"A Voice for Iran When Silence Was Easier: Remembering Prof. Rita S\u00fcssmuth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prof.
Prof. Rita S\u00fcssmuth, President of the German Bundestag (1988-1998), federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health (1985-1988)| Photo courtesy: Wikipedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prof. Rita S\u00fcssmuth\u00a0\u00a0was the kind of European stateswoman authoritarian systems dread: calm, reputable, stubbornly humane\u2014and unimpressed by excuses. When she died at 88, German Bundestag lowered its flags and began preparations for a state memorial<\/a> ordered by Frank-Walter Steinmeier. <\/span>But for many Iranians and supporters of Iran\u2019s democratic opposition, her passing lands differently. They mourn not only a towering German public servant, but a woman who spent her credibility when Iran\u2019s organized Resistance was being squeezed\u2014politically, legally, and at times physically\u2014by forces that expected Europe to look away.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her authority mattered because it wasn\u2019t borrowed from activism; it was earned at the summit of a major Western democracy. In Germany she became a standard-bearer for women\u2019s equality<\/a>, democratic culture, and a public-health approach to HIV\/AIDS that rejected stigma and moral panic\u2014an instinct to protect the vulnerable even when the vulnerable were unpopular. <\/span>That r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is not a sidebar to her solidarity with Iran; it explains it. When someone of her stature said\u00a0<\/span>this matters<\/span><\/i>, it became harder to dismiss Iran\u2019s freedom struggle as a distant complication.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What made\u00a0Prof.\u00a0S\u00fcssmuth\u00a0exceptional\u00a0for the Iranian Resistance was not\u00a0her\u00a0speech or\u00a0her active\u00a0intervention, but the quality of her engagement: steady, public, and difficult to intimidate. She treated Iran\u2019s struggle for freedom as a moral audit of the West\u2014whether democracies\u00a0remain\u00a0democracies when the victims are far away and the pressure to stay quiet is near. That stance showed up\u00a0again and again\u00a0in how she used her name: to open doors, to keep the issue in parliamentary sightlines, and to insist that the people under threat not be reduced to \u201ca file.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In stiller Erinnerung an Rita S\u00fcssmuth \u2014 wegweisende Politikerin, Verfechterin von Demokratie und Frauenrechten sowie eine gro\u00dfe Freundin und Unterst\u00fctzerin des iranischen Volkes und seines Widerstands.<\/p>\n

In loving memory of Rita S\u00fcssmuth \u2014 a trailblazing leader, champion of\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/rhUTb9LlQE<\/a><\/p>\n

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n