Virtual Account of Torture and Repression in Iran’s Prisons Coinciding with ‘Islamic Republic Day’
A group of Iranian civil activists and human rights advocates held an event on the anniversary of the Islamic Republic referendum with the theme “More Than Four Decades of Resistance and Justice-Seeking in Islamic Republic Prisons” titled “Hundred Narratives One Narrative.”
In this program, which was held online on Thursday evening, 12 Farvardin (Iranian time), reports, testimonies, memoirs, letters, and plans of those who have been in Islamic Republic prisons over the past four decades were narrated.
Meanwhile, on the same day designated as “Islamic Republic Day” in the official Islamic Republic calendar, Iranian users on social media with the hashtag “#Hundred_Narratives_One_Narrative” addressed the suppression of opponents and critics of the Islamic Republic in Iran’s prisons.
Akram referred to the repressions of the 1980s: “The 1980s saw massive arrests and the Islamic Republic tried to maintain appearances. Many were arrested at their workplaces. During arrests (especially leftists), they claimed they were being arrested for drug trafficking. People still had hope in the government and many believed these lies.”
Nazli Kamuri believes that “hearing the pain and suffering of political prisoners is not easy. Trauma creates trauma. We need to develop a strategy for ourselves so we can empathize with pain and trauma from a distance but not let the violence of trauma become internalized. The narrative of suffering has the potential to be a liberating force.”
And Aazam Bahrami recalled the tortures of Niloufar Bayani from the detention of those involved in environmental cases: “Many times they rolled up my sleeve and threatened me with air injections that would cause paralysis. The interrogator, a cleric who introduced himself as a representative of the repentant, told me to choose between 70 lashes over two days or 50 lashes in one day. But nothing was as shocking for me as seeing the image of Dr. Siamak Namazi’s body in the morgue.”
Source: Voice of America
