Global Voices Online

Many people for political reasons have been sent to prison in Iran. A few of those former prisoners shared their stories in books, through painting or in their blogs. Some people, including bloggers and researchers, have tried to look at prisons in Iran as an outsider, who was not in jail. Let's look at some of these blogs here:

I saw the Hell

Dr.Hesam Firouzi, a human rights activist and medical doctor who has treated several political prisoners spent time behind bars for 18 days in January. He shares part of his experience[Fa] in his blog. Dr. Firouzi criticized the behaviour of medical personnel with prisoners and says if a prisoner gets a chance to visit a doctor he/she should wait another 20 days for a second visit. He says once he found himself in a 15 to 20 square metre cell with 19 to 20 other prisoners. Dr. Firouzi says in some parts of prison drugs, especially crack, can be bought easily. The blogger wrote a letter to the authorities describing his experience.
He says the prison dentist's only job is to pull prisoners' teeth out and nothing else. The blogger adds there are very sick people without any access to necessary medical treatment. To sum up his experience, he writes: “I saw the Hell with my own eyes.”

Drug is the King

Ghomarasheghaneh, a blogger who had been in jail for his political writings, says contrary to popular belief, many prisoners get addicted to drugs in prison. The blogger says out of 120 prisoners more than 100 are drug addicts.

He says crack price is ten times more in prison than outside[Fa], making it a real temptation for many to deal in drugs. The blogger counts a few reasons for the increasing number of addicts:
1-no psychologist
2-addicts and non addicts are together
3-no library or sport center
4-some agents bring in drugs
5-no speration between younger and older prisoners. Those under 25 years are the most vulnerable. The blogger says he has real the doubt that prison in-charge doesn't know about what is happening.

Nightmare goes on

Memarian was sent to jail with several other bloggers for political reasons and persecuted. He says I have always been an optimistic person. Regarding his investigators in prison, he says they were people who only had the apperance of human beings[Fa].The blogger adds: “When I came out of prison, I said to myself let's forget these people and not let them hurt my optimism but this experience is still stuck in my memory. I still remember the guards' whispers and the keys turning in my cell's doors.”

Forced Confessions and Crow's Dreams

Jomhour has never been imprisoned but criticises forced confessions in Iranian jails[Fa]. Since first days of Iranian revolution many people were forced to come before TV and make statements.

To sum up the feeling of injustice, Kasra Anghaee,an Iranian poet, shares with us what it means to be in prison:

In the bewilderment of the forest
we had found a hut with white walls
but later we found out
that the hut
was the crows’ dream
and we had been lost
in the labyrinths of a melody
played by an old musician
beyond the river.