THE Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize 2023was first imprisoned in 2001. An engineer by profession, she had to endure endless interrogations until she was taken to one of the 209 solitary confinement cells in Evin prison, … in Tehran. These are small closed spaces, only one meter by three, where no natural light penetrates and where there is absolutely nothing that alters this white space. They stay there for days and days without any human contact. There are cases of prisoners who spent six months in this state. When they leave, the anguish and pressure are such that many can only confess whatever the torturers of the Islamic Republic want. With these confessions, they are sentenced to life imprisonment, or even the death penalty. The regime thus manages to eliminate all dissidence.
Mohammadi has been fighting for years to end this dehumanizing practice. So much so that she is now sentenced to ten years in prison. Due to health problems, he has managed to remain under house arrest, but he knows that at any moment he could return to prison and torture. The only certainty is that the Iranian government has confiscated his passport and he cannot leave the country. She has not been able to see her children for ten years, exiled in Paris with her husband, the journalist Taghi Rahmani, who received the Nobel Prize in his name. “The consequences that we had to pay for our beliefs are very harsh, and they are paid by our children, but Narges has no regrets, she knows that her fight is important to leave a better world for the women who will come after,” Rahmani said in statements to ABC.
The journalist inaugurated Friday the Barcelona Film and Human Rights Festivalwhere his wife’s documentary was screened “White torture”based on the book that Mohammadi herself wrote after her release from prison. The film talks about this terrible practice based on thirteen testimonies from people who have undergone it. There are horrible cases, like that of Akram Haghabi, mother of Saeed, disappeared in 1999 during the student revolt and was imprisoned for crying over her son and demanding that his case be investigated. “It was very difficult to obtain these testimonies. These are people who were free, but many were re-incarcerated simply for their appearance in the documentary. It is the state of repression and terror that governs Iran,” denounces Rahmani.
All the testimonies are terrifying. Mohammad-Ali Amoui spent 37 years in prison and he spent six months in these solitary confinement cells. “I can explain to you what electroshock or hot iron on the back is. They even whipped me and cut the hanging skin with scissors. But white torture is worse. You feel so empty that it feels like the walls are crushing you. The loneliness is so great that you barely know where you are,” he comments. He is not the only one. Aghael, a journalist, spent 288 days in prison. “It’s the same feeling of being buried alive. I can only say that it is a death experience,” he comments.
Isolation and confession
Many cannot resist the torture and are forced to sign confessions that could sentence them to life. “Afterwards, we feel so dirty, we just want to kill ourselves, but when we come out of white torture, we don’t respond logically. Hours pass and we hate each other so much that it’s like eating our own shit,” says journalist Abdollan Momeni. “It’s important that these testimonies are heard around the world. This will increase our hope of being heard against this religious, authoritarian and misogynistic government,” Mohammadi herself said in a video message to the festival due to her inability to leave the country.
own Rahmani has been imprisoned for more than 14 years and know these practices first-hand. “You reach out and touch the walls. You cannot move or interact with any objects. They deny you everything that makes you human and time freezes with a feeling of constant oppression,” he confesses. For now, their struggle has resulted in the Islamic Republic being established. a maximum of 15 days to carry out this torturebut this small victory is totally insufficient. “You should not accept even a single day in such a state. Moreover, these are unreal laws, without any control. The Nobel Prize did not improve our situation, but made it worse and it is difficult for the Islamic Republic to free Narges now,” he emphasizes.
Shocking testimonies reveal the horror of Iranian prisons and their inhumane torture system
However, the journalist does not lose hope and believes that it is possible to achieve an Iranian government that respects human rights and is committed to progress and freedom. “Above all, we must change society. Since the 1979 revolution, we have only replaced one authoritarian government with another.. What is clear is that only 10 percent support the Islamic Republic. 90 percent oppose it because of its political, economic or social incompetence. But there is fear and many do not even know about the atrocities committed against those who raise their voices,” says Rahmani.
Hope is placed on young people who are increasingly better prepared and more in touch with what is happening in the rest of the world thanks to the Internet and social networks. 40 years ago, this did not exist and Iranians were even more isolated. At the time, 30 percent of the population lived in cities. Today, this proportion reaches 70 percent and it is more difficult to contain the will of the people, despite the regime of terror practiced by the Islamic Republic. “This has been going on for many years, corruption levels are very high, profits natural resources that they can only sell to China are kept by the leadersand people are becoming more and more dissatisfied,” says Rahmani.
In the meantime, Mohammadi who has lung and heart problems due to various confinements and hunger strikescontinues with the dizziness of not being master of his destiny. “Her case is worse because women are the great enemy of the Islamic Republic. The machismo is absolute and the hatred of the authorities is infernal. This is why it is important that this documentary is broadcast, even if it is difficult. In an interconnected world like ours, what happens here is a reflection of what can happen anywhere and no one is innocent of what happens. The rise of the far right in Europe and around the world can also be explained by what is happening in Iran,” said the activist.
He Film and Human Rights Festival It will continue its activity until December 10 in Maldà cinemas. Among other denunciation films, you can see “The Luncheon”, by Guatemalan Denís Paz; “Mikoko”, on structural corruption in Togo; or “Shot the voice of freedom”, about what happened in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of American troops.