The Interview

In her first interview since the start of this year's uprising in Iran, lawyer Shirin Ebadi talks to FRANCE 24 about the Iranian people's desire for democracy. Ebadi was Iran's first female judge before losing her right to practice in 1979 amid the creation of the Islamic Republic. She has dedicated her life to defending the most vulnerable in Iran, and tried to demonstrate the contradictions of the Islamic laws. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003, she was forced to flee Iran in 2009.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the president of Seychelles hailed the deal reached at the COP27 climate conference on a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable nations as "good news". Wavel Ramkalawan said that "loss and damage" had been a long-standing request of small island states like his, but added that the key now was implementation and funding. "I hope that this good news is translated into reality immediately, because the world doesn't have time to wait," he said. Ramkalawan underlined that the islands of his archipelago face a very real risk of disappearance if no serious action is taken against climate change.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan reacted to the November 3 assassination attempt against him at a protest rally, during which he was shot in the leg. Officially, the gunman is believed to have acted alone, but Khan said he suspected the assailant was merely a decoy serving the interests of a state-level conspiracy. He directly accused current top Pakistani government leaders, saying they feel threatened by his party's popularity in view of the next elections in the country. Khan also said he feared he could be attacked again in the near future: "They think that the only way to get me out of the way is actually [to] eliminate me. So I think that there is a threat, still."

Argentinian President Alberto Fernández spoke to FRANCE 24 after being a guest speaker at the Paris Peace Forum, which ran from November 11-12 this year. Fernández also took part in a roundtable discussion with French President Emmanuel Macron, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and members of the Venezuelan opposition.

The war against drugs has killed more than a million people in Latin America without denting the power of drug trafficking mafias, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro tells FRANCE 24 and RFI in a wide-ranging interview that also touches on the war in Ukraine, the climate emergency and the tentative peace process with the ELN rebel guerrilla in Colombia.

In 2014, Nadia Murad was captured, alongside many other Yazidi women, by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in the Iraqi town of Sinjar. She was held hostage, enslaved, tortured and raped, before escaping to Mosul and making her way to Germany. After sharing the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, she is now a leading global advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Nadia Murad  spoke to FRANCE 24 from the Paris Peace Forum.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo discussed the sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "The sanctions are working and that's why Russia is working so hard to evade them," he said. Adeyemo also discussed the cap on the price of Russian oil announced by the G7. He confirmed that this "will happen" on December 5 and predicted a knock-on effect among other buyers of Russian oil, such as China and India, who will likely demand lower prices as a result.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, former Iranian television host Ehsan Karami says he has no desire to return to his homeland where the government continues its harsh crackdown on mass protests sparked by the death last month of Mahsa Amani. The 22-year-old woman died just days after she was arrested and beaten by Iran's "morality police" for allegedly wearing an "improper" hijab. Outrage over her killing has led to protests worldwide – women chopped off their hair and many Muslim women burned their hijabs. Karami, now living in California, says he is determined to use his voice to support the Iranian people who have been rising up in unprecedented numbers in defiance of Iran's repressive regime.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the US special envoy for Iran announced "a slew of new sanctions" on Iranian officials who are "directly involved" in the current deadly crackdown on protesters. Robert Malley was speaking 40 days after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested for improperly wearing her headscarf and whose shocking fate set off a wave of anti-regime demonstrations in Iran.

Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva is part of a working group, created by President Volodymyr Zelensky, tasked with campaigning for a special international tribunal to prosecute the crime of "aggression" in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She joins FRANCE 24 from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.