Kowsar Eftekhari was part of the Iranian uprising labeled 'Woman, Life, Freedom.' After she was blinded in the right eye during one protest and a warrant for her arrest was issued, she fled the country.
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00:00 He screamed and said, "Go away or I'll shoot you in the eye."
00:10 He targeted my eye with his evil smile on his face, and then he shot me, intentionally,
00:15 in the eye.
00:22 I have been thinking about the whole thing and wondering why he shot me.
00:29 Khosar Eftekhari was part of the Iranian uprising, labeled "Women, Life, Freedom."
00:36 She was blinded in the right eye during one protest.
00:40 She eventually made her way to Berlin.
00:43 Eftekhari is 24.
00:44 She had been a student in Tehran and a theater performer.
00:50 The killing of Gina Massa Amini sparked the protest movement against the Islamic Republic.
00:56 After I heard calls to protest, I joined them on October 12.
01:11 I had horrible anxiety.
01:14 When I reached the sidewalk, I found out they had blocked it.
01:17 My heart was racing.
01:19 I was scared of the anti-insurgency forces.
01:31 I wanted to pass by these forces, and I had my hijab down on my shoulder.
01:36 Once I got closer, one of them pushed me from behind.
01:46 He shot me, completely intentionally, in the eye, with that evil smile.
01:51 I heard people, and at the same time I was hearing whistling in my ears.
01:56 Protesters were chanting.
01:57 One security force member had just shot me in the eye.
02:10 We took a taxi.
02:11 I looked at my face in the mirror.
02:14 I was bleeding from my face, and my eye was swollen.
02:19 I didn't want to believe the person that I was seeing was me.
02:28 Khosar Eftekhari had lost the sight in her right eye, and with a warrant out for her
02:32 arrest, she fled to Iraqi Kurdistan and then to Germany, thanks to a humanitarian visa.
02:42 I covered the mirrors in my house with newspapers for months after it happened.
02:48 I didn't want to see my face with the injured eye.
02:53 But actually, during those days that I was suffering, spiritually and psychologically,
02:59 I was thinking that my eye is a mark of the crime and the cruelty committed by the Islamic
03:06 Republic.
03:08 Wherever I go, I will be living proof of the violent oppression in Iran.
03:17 I was suffering a lot of pain, but was thankful to God that I was chosen to show the criminality
03:24 and terrorism in the Islamic Republic.
03:29 A new chapter has begun in Khosar Eftekhari's life.
03:33 A chapter she already believes is a bright one.