By: Mojtaba Samiinejad
The practice of rape on prisoners, brought up by Karoubi in his letter to Rafsanjani, has existed for the last three decades in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many prisoners have written about it in their memoirs, and rumors have always existed about the issue. Prisoner rape is one of the most horrific forms of human rights violations in Iran, but not much has been said about it until now, despite its widespread practice. Social stigmas have made people reluctant to discuss the issue, and an admission of the practice would have had grave implications for the Islamic Republic. However the taboo is broken now; Rafsanjani, the second most powerful figure of the regime, has now publicly been informed about rape in prisons. A door has been opened and the issue must now be discussed. I saw and heard about many rape cases during my prison term. With the issue now open for discussion, I want to retrieve from my memoires some of the stories and retell them, so we can better know who these rapists are.
What I saw in my own interrogators (of which there were more than ten) or heard from others proved to me the existence of sexual complexes among them for which I have no explanation. Maybe it is because of their profession or a result of the training they have received. Who knows? I just want to tell you about a few cases so that you know.
One. Perhaps you have heard about or remember the case of the bloggers in 2004. In a session with Ayatollah Shahroodi, the bloggers brought up the sexual nature of the questions asked of them in the course of their interrogations. The Ayatollah was so tormented by their trzendani siasieatment that he dropped all the charges against them. At the time when the bloggers were telling the head of the judiciary about their ordeals, I was in solitary confinement and was subjected to a similar line of questioning by my interrogators. The terms “coke bottle” and “baton” were constantly used by my interrogators, who were threatening to use these objects on me, but this was not important to me. What hurt me the most during that time was when they were questioning me about my sexual relationships with girls who were my classmates or coworkers. I was also questioned about my friends’ sexual relationships. This happened repeatedly during the long course of my interrogations.
Two. The interrogation unit of ward 352 of the IRGC prison consisted of 6 rooms. The rooms were located at the end of a short hallway that was used for recreation. Some nights all 6 rooms were occupied and other prisoners were being interrogated in them. Often one could hear their screams and cries, which mounted to the sky while they were being tortured (I say this for the attention of those who bring the prisoners to the court and tell them not to talk about torture). Some nights there were 6 bloggers in 6 interrogation rooms and we could hear the loud voices of the interrogators and the agonizing screams of our friends (during the first 40 days I was in solitary confinement, 20 other bloggers were brought in). Two of the bloggers were friends and had been arrested together. I will not name them since some people might recognize them. They were beating both of them to make them confess to having a sexual relationship with each other. One was asked if he was sexually involved with his friend’s girlfriend, and the other one was asked if he had ever had sex with two girls at the same time. This line of questioning had put extreme psychological pressure on both of them. As I was listening to their interrogations and beatings, I was frozen. I couldn’t even imagine what they were going through.
Three. One of the two friends (whom I will call A) was in a cell next to mine for almost 2 months. At night, when the guards were not around, we used to talk to other prisoners through the small hatch on the cell door. One night at about 3am I heard his cell door opened. I thought they had come to take him for interrogation (most of the interrogations took place at the early hours of the morning). I could hear A talk to the guard but could not completely figure out the content of their conversation, and, once in while, I could hear him begging. This went on for half an hour. A common system in the prison was to knock on the adjacent wall 3 times to call each other. When the other prisoner heard the knocking, he would go to the door hatch to talk. For the next 2 day I kept knocking on the wall but A did not answer. After 2 days he knocked on the wall himself. When he told me what had happened I was frozen. The guard had entered the room, had lowered his pants without any shame or concern and had asked him to… The more I think about this, the less I understand it. I realized that the guard had done it several time before. The days that particular guard was on duty, A never called the guards to go to the washroom. This went on as long as A was in the cell next to mine. One day when two officials (I do not recall from where) were visiting I told them about A’s case. They said they would look into the matter but nothing happened.
Four. 6 months later I was exiled to Ghezel Hessar prison in a ward where they kept Afghan murder convicts. Afghan prisoners were treated badly because they did not have anybody outside who could follow up on their cases or rights. One day at about 7 o’clock in the morning we all woke up with the sound of moaning and crying coming from the guards’ quarters. We were told that one of the Afghan inmates in our room had a dispute with one of the guards and had been taken away 20 minutes ago. I suggested that the head of our room should go and see what was happening. He left and when he came back he was not able to talk. He said that the Afghan inmate had been penetrated by a baton. I could not feel my legs anymore and had to sit down. I could not believe what I was hearing had actually happened. An hour later, other inmates brought Mostafa R (the Afghan inmate taken away) back to the room. His pants were bloody. He went to take a shower. While he was away I wrote a complaint letter about the guards to the warden of the prison. When Mostafa came back from his shower I asked him to sign the letter and he did. We sent the letter to the warden, and half an hour later they came back for Mostafa and took him to the office. He came back in the afternoon with some juice, cake and money in his hand. I was still watching him with astonishment when my name was called. The guard on duty and the warden were waiting for me. The warden said I should not put my nose in other inmates’ business. The guard began to threaten me and we got into an argument. I said they had to follow up on the complaint. They answered “what complaint” and showed me a letter that was signed by Mostafa saying he had made no complaint against anyone and no harm had been done to him. They obviously had played the old carrots and sticks tactics on him.
Five. Prisoners under the age of 20 are often raped by other inmates who are physically stronger than them. Prison authorities never investigate these cases and do not take them seriously. If I were to write all my memories of such cases I would have to write about many cases. What you just read in this article are only a few examples of what I saw. In my two years of imprisonment, I witnessed and heard about hundreds of cases of rape. I will write about them gradually in the future
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