Op-Ed: Truth of Tyranny and Suffering under the Islamic Republic of Iran
Kaveh Taheri Photo Credit: Channel 2 News
I was a political prisoner in Iran, arrested for my blogging and writings on various websites; I was wanted by the officials for my protests against the policies of the Khomeiniist regime and was kept in solitary confinement in the worst possible conditions. I was beaten over and over again, and forced to endure the cruelest psychological abuse: blindfolded, I was forced to sit on the floor facing the wall for long hours in absolute silence. Then, suddenly, the guards would start shouting at me, telling me that I would be executed or given a very long prison sentence. I was even told that my sister who was a student in Malaysia had been brought back to Iran and was now under arrest. I was not permitted to contact my family at all. Due to the lack of heating, I came down with a bad case of influenza for which I was denied medical care or medicine. This caused my condition to deteriorate and I became extremely weak.
If I were to tell of a typical prison day for me and reveal the risks I had undergone, it would bring much grief. There I was placed in a notorious section known as Ward 11 with the most dangerous, violent prisoners, including mass murderers and professional drug dealers. Intelligence Service officials used this common method for pressuring the prisoners of conscience since 1979. One day, I was brutally beaten by a rugged man when I washing my face in the bathroom. He forcibly shoved me to place himself in front of faucet. He then punched me in the face with his fingerless hand; his index finger was cut off by the regime as a punishment for robbery, as I learned in the aftermath. I forgot about the pain in my face when I heard his sad story: “We are the forgotten creatures – he said while he rubbing the sign for t bruise ointments- who knows what the hell has happened to us?” He had five school age children and his wife was a house wife with no income. He told me that he and his family have not had any pleasure in their life. He had good income in prison through drug dealing when I asked inmates about his living expenses. They skillfully stored waterproofed drug packs in their anus. Some of them had swallowed the packs and puked them up in the bathroom after they passed the inspection gates of the prison.
There were three issues that will shock you in Ward 11 (Neshat section): Drug dealing, sodomy and gambling. The guards witnessed all of these and they also had a hand in it. Drugs were easily brought into the prison. I had been witness to the guards bringing in drugs into the prison too….. Drugs easily exchanged hands there. Prisoners openly used drugs in their room. Ward 10 had almost the same conditions and it was allocated mostly for murderers.
Many boyish prisoners were ruthlessly raped by criminal prisoners in the rooms or bathroom every day. Mr. Amjari, the head of prison security, once told me that “we know what is going on in the prison,” when I asked him for any possible scheming to stop these horrifying felonies. I had seen many times that a boyish political prisoner, M.V, was raped by low-minded inmates in exchange for communication services because he was banned from calling his family by Mr. Mozafari, the former prison chief (a member of IRGC).
Yet another ward, The “Neshat’, was not as cheerful as its name claims and the majority of prisoners were kept there. There were 30 rooms on 2 floors. Each room was 20 meters. There were 700-1400 prisoners on average depending on the time of year. In most months, approximately 25-30 prisoners were held in one room. That means each prisoner had only one meter of room to himself. There were 30 toilets for both floors and 20 showers of which five were usually broken; either they were too old or clogged and as such were not usable. In “Neshat” ward the prisoners were allowed outside (in yard) only for 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week.
I had personally witnessed and heard harassment of the inmates who were brutally tortured. They showed me the marks remaining from the tortures, and they would tell me that “we will be disabled for our whole life.” This is just my ordeal, all of which happened during Ahmadinejad’s presidential term.
Hassan Rouhani pledged more freedom in Iran; yet to say that the country has seen any improvements in human rights is a contradiction. According to all international human rights organizations, Iran under Rouhani is now the number one, per capita executioner on the planet.
Arbitrary arrests have skyrocketed and conservative estimates report that in 2015, at least 966 individuals were executed in Iran; a 40% increase in the ranks of capital punishment compared to 2014. And according to those very human rights groups, so far in 2016, dozens have already been executed.
Among the echelons regularly jailed by the regime authorities are human rights and civil rights activists. Among them, imprisoned since Rouhani’s presidency, are Arash Sadeghi and his wife Golrokh Ebrahimi (whom were sentenced to 21 years on ambiguous charges), Saeed Shirzad, and Omid Alishenas, all of whom were jailed by the Revolutionary Guard, reported by BCR Group. Omid Alishenas was finally released on the bail of 232,000 $ (700 million Tomans) after enduring 17 months in the prison. Today, Islamist authorities of occupied Iran affirmed highest sentence against Arash Sadeghi (19 years in prison) and his wife Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee (6 years in prison). The sentence was previously held at Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court chaired by the infamous Judge Salavati.
Also, Arash Hampay, the founder of an organization operating in Iran to assist the poor in Iran, who was repeatedly detained by the regime’s forces between 2005-2013, was forced to flee Iran as a result of frequent threats and summons by the Ministry of Intelligence and Surveillance.
Among other realities of life in Iran is the fact that women are treated as second class citizens. There is a huge disparity between the rights of women in the West and that of women living in countries governed by Sharia law, who are still denied their basic civil rights. Simple things like going to a sports arena or traveling abroad without a husbands and or father's (single women up to age 40) permission are just a couple of examples of what women face in Iran. Adultery and other ‘sins’ of that nature are a capital offense under Sharia Laws and punishable by stoning, hanging and flogging.
When elected, Mr. Rouhani claimed: “We do not have second-class citizens. All Iranians are equal.”
Yet 15% of homeless people and 37% of “beggars” in Iran are female. Poverty and unemployment are reaching unprecedented levels; inflation is rising higher. Around 70% of Iranian workers are barely subsisting under the poverty level. Some reports estimate that out of Iran’s 77 million population, 10 million are jobless, while thousands are living in the streets. That the numbers reported by the regime are their own downplayed estimates and mostly unreliable.
In an interview on April 28th, 2015 with Charlie Rose, the Khomeiniist Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said: “We do not jail people for their opinions…” The fact is however, that arrests have in fact escalated since Rouhani has taken the office.
Reports received from Rajai Shahr, Adel Abad, Gharchak and many other prisons throughout Iran, detail the lack of proper or any health care, clean water, proper food with nutritional values and sanitation for prisoners. In addition, the rising of suicide rates is said to be directly linked to poverty, unemployment and horrendous conditions throughout the country.
It has been nearly four decades since the Khomeiniist regime has taken power over Iran and during this time, ethnic and religious minorities continue to face persecution and discrimination in Iran, despite claims from the authorities to the contrary.
In March 2015, high ranking UN officials announced that Baha’i citizens continue to face discrimination, arrest, and arbitrary detention in connection with their religion. Baha’is have been systematically persecuted as a matter of government policy since 1979. Regime insiders have confiscated properties and assets belonging to Iranian Baha’is. They are prohibited access to basic civil rights, such as receiving job permits, deprivation of higher education, official representation in the Islamic parliament or to bury their dead in public cemeteries.
Iranian Sunnis also suffer serious discrimination and human rights activists are concerned that the Sunni Muslims in Iran live in fear as state-sponsored persecution ramps up. The South Eastern most province of Sistan and Baluchistan with the lowest economic participation and management in the country has the highest illiteracy rate, unemployment, percentage of poverty, rate of executions, mortality rates of mothers and children, per capita death and the largest number of Iranians without identification cards, lack of food security, the lowest level indicator of "life expectancy", the lack of judicial security and the highest percentage of malnutrition in the most disadvantaged provinces. The province is known for its ' tent schools for children.
The Arabs’ situation in the South West of the country is practically the same as in Sistan and Baluchistan. The region holds 70% of Iran’s oil resources and 30% of its water, with vast agricultural and fertile lands. However, 99% of the residents of the area, who are Arabs, are grappling with extreme poverty and deprivation in a large scale. “Arab identity in the eyes of Iranians is a grievous sin and a grave threat,” an Ahwazi activist described.
The Kurdish region is also in a deplorable condition, but in a slightly different way. The cross-border carry-trade is the main source of income for some Kurds due to unemployment which forces them to take serious risks climbing the impassable mountains and covering more than 300 kilometers while carrying heavy loads and backpacks. More perilous are the land-mines, falling into the valley or rivers located at the border, as well as gunfire by border security forces or snipers.
None of this is being reported in the Western media. Most people have no idea what is going on inside Iran; all their information about Iran and Iranians comes from Reformists, who will not say a word in defense of non-Reformist political prisoners or minorities. It is my duty to say what no one else will.
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