The Sounds of Silence of the Diasporas
By: Amil Imani
September 28, 2005
Ali
was a student at the
University
of
Tehran
. He was one of the students who was brutally attacked by the Ansar-i Hezbullah,
the militia forces of the Islamic Republic, during the attack of storming of a
dormitory on July 9th of 1999. The attack sent shock waves around the country
and for six consecutive days, brought the Islamic regime to its knees.
Ali was one of the protesters who was captured the day after the attack and was
sent to the notorious Evin prison for interrogation. He was brutally beaten,
forced to confess to crimes he never committed and was held there for nearly
four years.
The Islamic Republic, very similar to Stalin's style of forced confessions, has
resorted to these types of "confessions" to pave the way for the
prosecution of any open-minded activists in
Iran
.
Arrests usually occur in the dead of night. Individuals later find themselves
held in "detention" for days, weeks, months and even years without any
formal charges whatsoever. By obtaining self-incriminating confessions, the
Islamic Republic is focusing on destroying individuals' reputations, dignity and
honor, and, sowing the seeds of contention, enmity, friction and tearing to
pieces the best of human characters.
The Intelligence Ministry of the Islamic Republic often arrested and persecuted
people not necessarily for what they did, but for who they were and what they
were capable of doing. Their targets have been those groups of people who were
acclaimed or fluent with foreign languages, educators, members of pen
organizations, writers, poets, intellectuals and of course the journalists.
I ran into Ali not long ago and asked him if I could briefly expose his story
for the world to hear about it. He agreed on the basis of anonymity due to the
fact that he still has relatives living in
Iran
. Of course, Ali is his pseudonym to protect him from the wrath of the mullahs.
He recalled how he was interrogated and spent most of his time in solitary
confinement for crimes of waging war against Allah, ultimately punishable by
death. According to the words of the merciful and compassionate God of Quran
"The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and
make mischief in the land, is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand
and foot on opposite sides...their doom is dreadful. They will not escape the
fire, suffering constantly." 5:33
Ali's escape of such horrific punishment as death from starvation and exhaustion
at the claws of the Islamic Republic makes for fascinating and compelling
reading.
In the cycle of prison horrors and terrors, Ali gives us just a glimpse of the
prison punishment scheme, harassment and intimidation of the Iranian youth by
the Islamic Republic lackeys. He started off by saying that the Islamic Republic
is dreaming of world domination through Islamic wars and conquests, and for this
they need the brutalization of the Iranian people to bring them to the will of
Allah.
He went on to say for the Islamic Republic, terror, brutality and violence are
necessary tools to achieve their ultimate goal in regional and world domination.
At times, he was separately held in a very small solitary confinement. It was
too small for one to be able to sit in it, let alone lie down in that. He was
confined in that solitary cell for months. Others faced a more terrible lot.
They were subjected to inhuman tortures. Beatings were quite common.
They all were subjected to different kinds of tortures. Some even went insane.
He paused for a moment and I noticed his eyes were filled with tears. He deeply
sighed and said, "Where were the human rights and humanitarian groups
during that time?"
He told me, there were four revolutionary guards who took turns beating me up
for no reason. These beating frequently happened in the middle of the night.
“They would strip all my clothing, take me into a small room and put on my
knees with my head down,” Ali said softly. “A bearded heavy man pushed the
edge of his knife down against the back of my neck. He told me, he would slit my
throat if I don't confess that I am part of the "monafeghin"
organization, the "MKO" who actually were the fuel behind the Islamic
Revolution.”
Ali continued, "Suddenly, you hear nothing except silence. There were no
more questions, only silence and the weight of a knife at the base of my throat.
One wonders how these people live with themselves. Do they have children of
their own? How would they like their kids to be treated like animals?"
Ali became quiet for a moment and I kept gazing in his eyes with disbelief.
How hard and horrible it must have been for him and others like him in the
Islamic dungeons. He started mumbling as though there were not enough time in
his life time to express his story. This is the story of thousands upon
thousands of innocent young and old Iranians who are forced to waste their
precious time in the Islamic Republic prisons for simply wanting a better life.
They want a better life not only for themselves, but for their fellow countrymen
as well. To the Islamic republic, this is called waging a war against Allah.
”Some would sit in solitary confinements, starving and rotting. Many die due
to the heavy beating and they remove their bodies quickly in the middle of the
night to an unknown area. My cell was very small and impenetrable. The walls
were made from heavy cement. No were windows. The doors were made of thick metal
and very strong. On the ceiling almost 6 meters above, there were two
ventilation holes from which you could hear the screams of others, repenting and
begging the torturers to stop beating them up”.
”The methods of tortures ranging from mechanical devices designed to inflict
gross tissue damage, to psychological and physiological techniques, such as
solitary confinement and sleep deprivation were commonly used”
Ali had a lot more to say. A lot more than a man can handle to hear. Ali
and others like him are prisoners of conscience. They believe in freedom,
justice and liberty. These three principles of humanity are forbidden in the
Muslim countries. These words equate to waging war against Allah, thus death
will be awaiting you.
Iranians must learn that history does not repeat itself. We repeat history! What
is sad is that the world community and, in the case of Ali, Iranian communities
do not do enough to expose the Islamic Republic's waging war against all living
things. Unfortunately, most Iranians in the West are more interested in making
more money than helping people like Ali. Iranian communities have become
extremely nonchalant, thus, they have become pseudo-Iranians, merely spectators.
Amil Imani is a poet, writer, literary translator,
essayist, novelist, and a political activist who speaks out for the struggling
people of his native land,
Iran
.
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