Screening of the documentary "Climbing Iran"

The screening, free and open to the public, will be held on Wednesday 23 August at 18.00 in the Aula Magna of the Lugano West Campus in the context of the MEM Summer Summit 2023. The documentary "Climbing Iran" (Italy, France | 2020 | 54' | Italian, English, Sub. Italian, English) will be introduced by the director Francesca Borghetti and by the protagonist, the Iranian climber Nasim Eshqi.

Nasim has strong hands adorned with hot-pink fingernail polish. She is the pioneer of outdoor climbing in Iran, where women climb on indoor walls, during set hours, and only among other women. After being a young champion in different sports – from karate to kickboxing – Nasim followed the call of the mountains and decided to go beyond the barriers imposed on women in her country setting up her own route on the Persian rocks, where she opened around fifty new lines.

The film  portrays an extraordinary woman determined to push the barriers opposing her passion, whether they are physical, social, psychological, geographical, or ideological. Committed to “change things little by little”, she brings a few other young women to the rock walls outside Tehran, teaching them how to climb and get independent. Nasim has a dream that can become reality: open a new route in the Alps even if coming to Europe is not an easy adventure.

To register: https://usi.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Y8kNM9zcxlLU0K

USI MEM Summer Summit 

Università della Svizzera italiana launched the MEM Summer Summit in 2018, in cooperation with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Division of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which is its main partner. The acronym MEM stands for the extended region of the Mediterranean and the Middle East (from Morocco to Iran). It refers to a complex and heterogeneous geopolitical and cultural space that has undergone and is still undergoing profound and rapid changes. The MEM Summer Summit aims to develop new approaches, different narratives, and new projects that transcend physical and cultural boundaries between communities across the MEM region and beyond, with the active contribution of young participants (young change-makers). Furthermore, the Summit is a safe space for young change-makers to meet, exchange experiences, collaborate and build mutual understanding. Finally, the Summit also serves as a platform to test initiatives and proposals at the civil society level before they reach more formal and institutional levels.