[Reader-list] The Rape of Taraneh: Prison Abuse of Iran's Protesters (from Huffington Post)

[shuddha at sarai.net]

Dear All, 

Here is a sad and tragic report on conditions in Iranian prisons today by
Shirin Sadeghi. Those following the situation in Iran will find this of
interest. I hope it adds to our understanding of the nature of the regime
that continues to smother the will of the people of Iran.

 It may be asked, by some, how much credence we can give to a report on
Iran that appears in an 'American' platform like Huffington Post. My answer
to such a query is simple. If we are prepared to accept the veracity of,
and condemn (as many of us do) the instances of rape and abuse committed by
US military personnel and others that took place in the Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq, which also began to appear (and have consistently appeared) in
platforms like Huffington Post, then we have equal reason to condemn what
is happening in Iran when it is highlighted by the same fora.

You cannot condemn the US forces in Iraq for doing something in Iraq, and
then not condemn elements within the Iranian state apparatus for doing the
same thing in (neighbouring) Iran.

regards, 

Shuddha

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The Rape of Taraneh: Prison Abuse of Iran's Protesters

Shirin Sadeghi
(Middle East Consultant and former Journalist for the BBC and Al Jazeera)
Posted: July 15, 2009 09:25 AM on Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shirin-sadeghi/the-rape-of-taraneh-priso_b_233063.html


The names and stories of the Iranians who have been brutalized or killed in
the aftermath of the post-election protests are gradually seeping into a
memorial vault of the faces of suffering and endurance in the name of
sociopolitical reform.

One by one, the faces of protest are providing an essential yearbook of the
individuals who comprise the protest masses, and a catalogue of the Iranian
government's treatment of political activists.

On Friday July 19, a large group of mourners gathered at the Ghoba mosque
in Tehran to await a speech about the martyrs of the post-election protests
by presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. According to one Iranian
blog, 28-year-old Taraneh Mousavi was one of a group of people that was
arrested by plainclothesed security forces for attending the gathering.

Taraneh, whose first name is Persian for "song", disappeared into arrest.

Weeks later, according to the blog, her mother received an anonymous call
from a government agent saying that her daughter has been hospitalized in
Imam Khomeini Hospital in the city of Karaj, just north of Tehran --
hospitalized for "rupturing of her womb and anus in... an unfortunate
accident".

When Taraneh's family went to the hospital to find her, they were told she
was not there.

According to another Iranian blog which claims to have original information
about Taraneh from her family, Iranian security forces contacted Taraneh's
family after the hospital visit warning them not to publicize Taraneh's
story and not to associate her disappearance with arrests made at
post-election protests, claiming instead that she had tried to harm herself
because of feeling guilty for having pre-marital sex.

Witnesses have come forward to the various Internet sites who are covering
Taraneh's story, stating that she was mentally and physically abused in
Tehran's notorious Evin prison and also that a person who matches her
physical description and injuries had been treated at the Imam Khomeini
Hospital, was unconscious when witnessed and was later transferred out of
the hospital while still unconscious.

Taraneh's is not the first allegation of brutal raping of a post-election
protester -- according to the UK Guardian, an 18 year old boy in Shiraz was
repeatedly gang raped by prison officials while in detention after being
arrested for participating in the protests on June 15. That boy's father
won't let him back in the family home.

Despite its agitations for reform, Iranian society remains traditional,
according to Iranian-British blogger Potkin Azarmehr, and it's the stigma
of rape that is being used as a weapon against the protesters. "By killing
protesters, the government makes martyrs of them, but by raping them and
allowing them to live, it makes them shunned in society," Azarmehr said.

Not that the stigma of rape is exclusive to Iran and other more traditional
societies. A friend of Azarmehr's who is presently in Iran told him that
he's "sick of hearing that people like Taraneh are better off dead" from
friends abroad, just because they "can't handle the fact that she's been
raped."

The psychology of threatening protesters and political activists is not a
new science. The strategies and ultimate goals are the same for any kind of
torture: to humiliate, disembody (through denying the victim authority over
his/her own physical self), extract confessions (whether true or false) and
ultimately permanently terrorize the victims to prevent further
'disturbances'. The last part often fails spectacularly, as victims tend to
feel even more antagonism toward the perpetrators, and even more of a 'do
or die' mentality about agitating for change at any cost.

Prison abuse and torture is also about marking these victims as defiled
human beings -- it's like a scarlet letter of social isolation against
them, to deny them the community support and strength which they need to
move past those memories and not be defined by them. This is where others
can step in and change the very attitudes toward abuse which so many
institutions count on when they commit these crimes.

The story of Taraneh's condition is still unfolding and there are no
certain confirmations of its details beyond the reports of bloggers who are
obliged to remain anonymous for safety reasons -- but the idea that
political prisoners are being mistreated in this way is not new to Iran and
is a significant element of a program of terror which has sustained the
current system in Iran.

Taraneh's story must be told and it must be heard. Perhaps her life can
still be saved.