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Wednesday
May052010

A Female Detainee in Iran: "Stripped by the Basiji"

After much deliberation, I have decided to post this account, purportedly from an Iranian woman detained on 11 February, posted by Saeed Veladbaygi on A Street Journalist. Of course, we cannot verify the claims, but Veladbaygi has been a solid reporter of events throughout the post-election crisis.

Warning: even as words on the page, these recollections are very graphic:

[Veladbaygi's Introduction: I had no news from my good friend “Courageous Purity” and in order to not take any risks I hadn’t even called her on her cell, lest it create even more problems for her, particularly as we communicated often via email. When visiting Iran during the New Year holidays, I finally had the opportunity to see my family and to inquire about my dear friend Courageous Purity. No one was at her house, so I assumed that they must be traveling. In any event, after the New Year holidays, I left Iran without any news of her, until yesterday when I received an email from her that read:]

On the 22nd of Bahman like all other times, we decided to go to the demonstrations with our friends. We planned to meet at 10am on the south side of the 2nd square at Ariashahr. When we arrived at our destination at 10am we realized that even though Ariashahr was looking more like a military post, people were still congregating on the sides of the streets, waiting for Mr. Karroubi to arrive. With time, more and more people arrived. As the crowd increased, you began to hear slogans. People were chanting “death to the dictator” and “we support you Karroubi” and many other slogans that I no longer recall (it was 80 days ago).



I suddenly heard bullets being fired. We were surrounded by tear gas and some people’s clothing was smeared with colored paint. We were standing perplexed by the color on people’s clothing when the coup government thugs attacked us. As we began running away, we bumped into each other. My clothes were tainted with paint as my body brushed against someone else’s that had paint on it.

While we were fleeing, I noticed that the coup government thugs had zoomed in on me. It became clear to me that they were going to arrest me. Though I began to run with all my mite, it didn’t take very long for them to surround me. As I stood facing them, one of the coup government thugs lashed out at me from behind with something that felt like a hose. The impact was so strong that I fell to the ground face down. I tried to scramble to my feet, when one of the thugs who was wearing boots put his foot on my neck, forced me back down and said “Don’t move an inch!”

Another thug tied my hands to my back. My body was still aching from the pain of the previous lashing when they pushed me face down into the floor of a van with blue curtains. I expected to see female police officers in the van, but was greeted instead by two very rude male officers, who approached us and called us every name in the book while they blind folded us.

I am not sure how many were in the van when it started moving. I was on the floor blindfolded, but I felt the van move. I’m not sure how long it was moving or where we were going to, but it felt as though we were in the van for a good 15 minutes. As soon as we arrived at the headquarters of the regime thugs, they began insulting us and calling us names again. They tossed us out of the car. I felt as though I was in a dark and enclosed area, because the voices were echoing.

They picked us up from the floor and spoke to us as though we were prostitutes. One of them said “We have to sleep with one of them every night?” I was petrified. I had been afraid from the moment they arrested me, but hearing these words was something else all together. Another one who seemed older said “Let’s undress all of them.” while the others laughed at us.

Another thug said “They have to increase our quota. This is not enough girls for us.” The thugs continued to humiliate us. We were very tired and thirst and hunger was beginning to set in too. Then they said “We’ll come back for you tonight.”

I’m not sure how many we were, but I could hear other girls weeping quietly. It was towards the end of the night when they came back for us. It was cold. We weren’t sure where we were and we didn’t even dare to get up or move. Suddenly we heard the frightful voices of the thugs. They began picking us up from the floor one by one and taking us to another room. They started with one girl. They told her to get up. She began screaming and protesting as they lifted her. It was obvious that she didn’t want to go with them. I could hear the sound of a slap, punch and kick, mixed with the girl’s cries and swearing by the thugs. We were engulfed with fear as we knew that one of us was going to be next.

As it turned out, I was the next in line. I began to scream. I yelled “I won’t come!” but they dragged me out while insulting, slapping and kicking me around to what looked like a room in the same area. They untied my hands and asked me to remove my clothes. I was crying and I was scared. I said “I won’t take them off.” I pleaded with them and asked “Don’t you have sisters?” when one of them slapped me hard in the ear and said “Don’t compare yourself to my sister you whore!”

I was paralyzed with fear. He said,”Take off your clothes”. I was really scared. I removed my clothes. He said “Why are you just standing there? Take the rest off too.” (my undergarments) I pleaded “These undergarments are all that are left of the honor of a girl, if I take these two items off too, I will be insulting your honor as well.” They started insulting me again and someone smacked me on my bottom and screamed “Hurry up, continue.” I said “I won’t take any thing else off. I know that you have enough honor and dignity that you too don’t want me to take off these last two items of clothing.” One of the thugs attacked me like an animal, he beat me and tore off my undergarments. Now I was completely naked…

I think there were four of them. They were eying me now that I was stark naked. One of them lifted me and put me on a desk, so that with utmost brazenness, they could all take a better look at me. He said “Haji, this one’s mine tonight okay?” I heard the one I believe was referred to as Haji reply “We haven’t stripped the rest of them yet. Wait, you might end up with a better one!” But the first man replied “I already checked them all out. This one’s the good one of the bunch.” Then the Haji said “Okay then take her.” As he began to lift me and take me out of the room, the Haji asked “Wait, would you prefer to stay?”

I felt a sliver of hope and said “Please Haji. Yes. I beg you. For the love of god save me. I’ll do what ever you say.” He said “Get her a chair so she can sit.” I sat on the chair. He said “I want you to answer every question I’m about to ask you correctly. I know your name already and I know where you work. I want you to tell me the names of your accomplices. I want you to tell me who you take your orders from. Are you one of Mousavi’s gang or are you a Karroubi follower? Which one of your coworkers is anti regime?” He asked me these questions and many more that I no longer remember….

I said “How am I to supposed to write the answers to so many questions when I’m blind folded?” He asked that they remove my blindfolds. I saw the Haji. He was approximately 50 years old and had a light colored, thin beard. There were three other very young boys with him. I’m guessing that they were around 17 or 18 years old. It dawned on me then, that it was these young men who had wanted to spend the night with me.

My head was aching. I kept thinking, what is the Islamic Republic promoting amongst the young Basijis? Sex? Casual intercourse? I was reminded of Imam Khomeini’s saying “Basij is the school of love”. Is Basij the school of love, or the school for love making? Or maybe it’s the school for learning how to have sex.

In the end, I wrote down everything the Haji asked me to and confessed to everything he wanted. Even if he had asked me to write that the bombing of the 7th of Tir was my doing, I would have done it, though the truth is I was only 9 years old when it happened. When I finally wrote down everything he had asked me to, he told me I could get dressed and once I was dressed I was taken to another room (from the look of the walls, I felt as though I was in a mosque. When they opened the door to the room, I saw another girl in the room. They threw me in and I began talking to her when we heard the screams and pleas of the other girls outside who were being taken to see the Haji.

We slept in the same room that night. In the early hours of the next day, they came for us, handcuffed us, blindfolded us, put us in a car and took us to a destination that I think took about ten minutes to get to. When we arrived, we realized that we were at Evin prison.

I’m exhausted. I was just released from Evin. In my next email, I will tell you about my 80 day imprisonment at Evin.

Reader Comments (12)

[...] A Female Detainee in Iran: “Stripped by the Basiji” | Enduring America by forafreeiran on 5 May 2010 A Female Detainee in Iran: “Stripped by the Basiji” | Enduring America. [...]

Just the title made my heart ache.

May 5, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdanial

These stories are all too common. We've been reading (about) them forever it seems :-(
A Letter of Suffering by Bahareh Maghami, A Victim of Prison Rape
April 13, 2010
http://persian2english.com/?p=9378" rel="nofollow">http://persian2english.com/?p=9378

May 5, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterCatherine

Karroubi seemed to be under the impression that the sexual abuse of detainees had stopped after the initial Karizak prison scandal and closure in the aftermath of the election. It is important that he and his organizations be alerted to this story.

May 5, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAdam

When God will this end??? My heart has broken even more...

May 5, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterBijan77

Basij and Sepah aren't a part of coup government, they are the very foundations of the Islamic Republic. Rapes and tortures have been going since the early days of Islamic Republic.
Taking part in the protests gave them the excuse to kidnap and rape people under official orders as thousands of girls get raped every year after being arrested for dress code reasons.
Most runaway girls who mostly end up killed or used as sex slaves, start their journey after being kidnapped by the Basij & Sepah, gang raped by them for weeks and left alone in the streets with no way to go back to their religious families. Most rape victims and their families will not file any complaint or discuss with anyone for the embarrassment and even if they file a complaint its very likely that the IR law enforcement accuse them of being prostitutes and instead put them in jail!

Almost any sick minded, pedophile, psychopath and criminal Iranian is a part of either Basij or Sepah and arresting women who don't follow hijab laws (many times they kidnap women with full hejab too, any attractive woman is a potential target, all they need to label her a suspected prostitute) and raping them is a part of their daily hobbies. This has been going on for the past 31 years and the IR is so corrupt that only regime change would solve the problems. No matter who the president is, these mafia organizations will not change their behavior.

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterCyrus

Just even reading this traumatic event is very painful. And when I am looking to the political acting of the culprits it’s just keeping my blood boiling.

At the midst of February the Human Rights council of the UN took place in Geneva.The Iranian Delegation headed by Sadeg Larijani stated officially:

(Original Quotes of the “Draft report of the Working Group” about the Periodic Review of the so called “Islamic Republic of Iran”)
http://daccess-dds-.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/G10/117/82/PDF/G1011782.pdf?OpenElement" rel="nofollow">http://daccess-dds-.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/G10/11...

Quote
6. “The delegation noted that the 1979 Islamic Revolution had led to the creation of a new system of democratic polity and social and civil order based on Islamic rationality. It underscored explicit and extensive human rights references in the Constitution, such as chapter 7, on “The right of people”. Article 6 provides that all major decisions on all matters, including representation in high office, should be based on the people’s consent. It noted that the judiciary was independent from the executive and legislative branches, with the requisite principles to ensure due process.”

Unfortunately nobody asked for examples of the democratic polity and what is based to the peoples consent.

Quote
9. “With regard to the challenges facing Iran, the delegation stated that its human rights situation had consistently been used by some Western countries to apply political pressure and advance ulterior political motives.”

There can’t be to much pressure – it wasn’t enough!

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterGunniy

Quote
13. “The Islamic Republic of Iran highlighted the contributions it had made in human rights forums, including to standard-setting and literature, and emphasized the significance of an interactive and cooperative approach and the avoidance of confrontation, double standards and politicization”.

Yes – avoidance of double standards – any questions?

Quote
16. “On the national level, the delegation cited the role of the Iranian parliament in promoting human rights through legislation and the establishment of new programmes.”
Wow- Larijani is talking about the Parliament which has no power to control or promote anything.

Quote
87. “The swift closure, based on existing legal procedures, of the Kahrizak detention centre after the discovery of wrongdoing was emphasized and compared with the situation in other countries.”

There are serious reports that Kahrizak which is reopened using another name!
The behavior of this kind of bloody politicians is not believibal !

With the whole power of my hard I admire the braveness of “Courageous Purity”.

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterGunniy

In light of the continued sexual abuse of the nation's women, I think that the Green Movement's Gandhi-esque pacifist strategy has outlived its usefulness. People (especially women) simply won't come out into the streets for you if they know they can be sexually abused in custody and nothing will be done or said about it. I think it is time for the leaders of the Green Movement to call on the army to save the country from this barbarism. Anything is better than the status quo where Khamenei rapes the nation and yet nobody will challenge his monopoly on the use of force.

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterAdam

Iran welcomes vist of UN human rights chief
Iran announced it will welcome a visit by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of Iranian judiciary’s Human Rights Headquarters in a meeting with Livia Leu Agosti, Swiss ambassador to Tehran declared that Iran is fully prepared to respond to any questions regarding the situation of human rights in Iran.

IRNA state news agency reports that at the meeting Larijani emphasized that Iran’s judiciary is managed with utter “transparency and professionalism.”

(If you believe that you'll believe anything)
For what it's worth: http://www.zamaaneh.com/enzam/2010/05/iran-welcomes-vist-of-un.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.zamaaneh.com/enzam/2010/05/iran-welc...

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterCatherine

@ Catherine

Adjustment "Human Right council"

Thanks Catherine - you are right - its the other one of the " terrible Larijani brothers" who is the leader of the Iranian judiciary’s Human Rights Headquarter. For me it was quiet interesting - and the right place below the terrible report of "Courageous Purity" - to cite his propaganda which he announced at the Human Rights council at Geneva. The remaining question is - if he believes fore himself the glaring statements of his iranian delegation - or is he doing his job as a bad actor at Geneva?
Aspirations and Reality - or concious politics and propaganda?
The result is insicnificant - both are terrible.

May 6, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterGunniy

UN is a toothless, impotent waste of an organization that is becoming a laughing stock of the whole world. I'm increasingly in agreement (as much as I hate to admit) with J. Bolton that 90% of the UN can be thrown away. It serves only the GOV'Ts and not the people of the world.

We need an organization that is TRULY on the side of the PEOPLE and not the Gov'ts (as UN is), that listens and cares about the voice of the people even when it contradicts their gov'ts.

To hurt these animals, the world ought to stop issuing visas to all Iranian officials, block their bank accounts and other financial transactions. Mere issuing letters of condemnation, ala the impotent UN, will not do anything.

May 8, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterdavood

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