Many stories of the fate of Iran’s young protestors, journalists, and academics have become front page news as allegations of rape and torture on those arrested this summer comes to the front page of papers worldwide. The infamous Evin Prison is where many of those arrested political prisoners have been detained this summer, but what is known by many in Iran and ignored by many outside of the country is that rape and torture of political prisoners did not being this summer, but has been going on over the last thirty years.
Marina Nemat, a victim of Evin Prison who was lucky enough not to be executed during her time there wrote her account in prison in Evin, in her book called The Prisoner of Tehran. In her time there she was arrested for having negative views of the Revolution of 1979 and was put in prison for many years. Her perspective is an interesting one, as one of her interrogators, who was a political prisoner himself under the Shah became her husband in the end. While she was forced to marry him, there was some respect between the couple and the views he held as a prisoner himself. In the end Marina was released from prison and while all these years she has refrained from telling her story, in her book she reveals for the first time her life as a political prisoner. Marina now lives in Canada.
Another account of how foreign journalists were treated in Evin Prison was discussed when a Canadian Journalism of Iranian descent and birth, Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in Iran in 2003. Acknowledgement of the story and actions by the previous Canadian Government was virtually absent until her son, Stephan Kazemi pushed for public protests and for help from the Canadian Government. Accounts of her ordeal in Evin Prison were that she was beaten to death and raped as well in order to defile her reputation and soul. Her body was then not returned to Canadian authorities amidst much protest. Currently Canadian Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari is being held with other political prisoners in Iran. He is one of those accused in Iran’s political court for inciting protests in the country.
The Baha’I of Iran, who’s governing council was arrested late last year for false charges echos the past arrest of the Baha’I council in the past, all who were executed after their arrest. Government persecution of this religious minority often is recycled over history via Apostate laws, accusations of anti-state activities and associations with foreign elements, and continuous monitoring of community and community leaders leading to unpublicized tragedies in many forms. One clear example of this repeat of history was the open discrimination in the early 80’s after the Iranian Revolution. In 1980-81 the arrest and the execution of the leaders of the Baha’i religious and community leaders took place. The council, named the National Spiritual Assembly, were collected and imprisoned and eventually murdered by the government. This trend continued against members of the community and any other “political” dissidents in Iran since that time. Since then, little coverage of this issue has taken place in Western and Eastern media.
All these accounts of the terrors of Evin Prison will likely lead to its destruction by the people of Iran. An argument may be made to have the prison destroyed as a means of mercy for those who will certainly be tortured and raped until death for crimes such as speaking their mind and simply being of a different political or religious ideology. To ignore Evin Prison or to be only shocked by recent activities that have been going on there for thirty years when a modern event occurs is to legitimize the history of brutal torture that has been taking place there. By all rights, it should have been destroyed years ago..now that journalists and citizens of foreign nations and peaceful Iranians are there being murdered, international focus should be finally set on and legitimately encouraged against Iran’s dictators. Evin Prison should fall as did the Bastille in France’s Revolution.
