Shiva Nazar Ahari Interview VIDEOS PARTS 1, 2, and 3
December 24, 2009
**NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to Shiva’s most recent arrest. For the latest on Shiva Nazar Ahari, click here
Translation of Video :
They came to arrest me at 1:00 am on June 13th. I wasn’t aware of the large amount they had already arrested. I wasn’t home when they came to my house. They took a number of my belongings and told my family I had to come in for questioning. On June 14th, I went to work and they came and arrested me at my work place. The few hours of questioning lasted for 102 days. I stayed in section 209 of Evin prison. I was finally released on $200,000 bail.
I was admonished many times for my writings, especially in solitary confinement. I used the sharp end of a tube of toothpaste to write on the walls. It was forbidden to write on cell walls. Every time I did, they transferred me to a new cell and forced me to go back with a wet cloth and wipe it all off.
Interviewer: “Shiva, do you feel free now?”
Shiva: “No.”
Interviewer: “Yes, you are! you are walking freely among nature.”
Shiva: It’s not a good feeling. When I was in prison, I was a prisoner with hardships. But when I was released, I began to think it was easier in there. Before, I thought that when I am released, I would once again be with my my friends. But now that I am out, many are not here anymore. Many keep on getting arrested and going back to prison. We all spent many nights and days together before the election. We also protested together. The feeling gets worse when I realize that my friends are still in prison. It makes me feel helpless.
In prison it was easier because I believed myself to be a prisoner. There was nothing I could do there, but at least I was close to the others. When I got to see them in the lobby once in a while, it was a great feeling. I think many prisoners were like me. We would wait the whole week for the 20 minute visitations. We weren’t as excited about meeting our family members, since we were meeting each other and other prisoners. We would get to meet each other’s families too. It was a great feeling, despite all its hardships.
I now feel like this freedom is not so attractive. I will truly feel free when I know they are out of prison. Maybe it would be a better feeling then. But not now. It’s a terrible feeling to be out while people like Atefeh, Shabnam, and Abdollah Momeni are still there. We all went to prison together but they are not free to come out and walk in the park. They are still in their cells. It’s not a good feeling. Not at all.
[in her office]
I wrote these at various times. They were very interesting for my co-workers to remember me by. They hadn’t touched them until I got out.
Interviewer: “I guess that means that you weren’t fired”
Shiva: “Yes, my sister works here. And when I would call home, she would tell me that they had not even touched my poems. It meant that they eremembered me and had not fired me. That was a good feeling. Because many inmates are always worried about losing their jobs and they worried about finding another one. For me, at least, I had no such worries. And this calendar shows the days I am counting since my friends were arrested.
Interviewer: “Have you ever thought that all this work is for nothing? That it’s a waste? Since you have to go to jail for it?”
Shiva: “You mean I should leave the country? Well the thought goes through everyone’s minds. We all think about it, especially when you are in this situation. You are out of prison, waiting for the court date. You are unsure about what’s going to happen. Well you have to accept the fact that activism here has its price. There is prison, arrest, and all the other factors that come with it. But I have decided to stay, whatever the price I have to pay. I try my best to stay. How long I can go like this, I don’t know, but I will try my best to stay here. Whatever the price and hardships are, I think we should all stay. Many tell me that it would be a lot easier to do human rights work outside the country, but I believe we are the most affective right here. I cannot be as affective outside the country. I may be able to attend a few gatherings and go to different organizations and make a name for myself, but it won’t be as affective as it is inside the country. I would not be able to play the same role I am playing here outside the country.
I believe our line of work is such that many people here need our help. For example, families of political prisoners need us. Many inmates tell us that we are their only hope when we get out. Of course I am not as powerful as the inmates think of me. But I feel like if I leave the country, they won’t even have this little hope. Additionally, this is our country. Who will stay if we all leave?
Interviewer: “If you had left the prison and found out you were out of a job, would you say the same things?”
Shiva: “Definitely! Every time I called home I would ask if I was fired yet. Well if you are working, you need to be ready to pay the price. I have completely adapted to the situation. When I was a university student, I was a little more conservative, especially because I was paying a high tuition. So at times I would cool down so that at least I could get to finish school. I would always ask myself if I was going to be the same way when I was out of school and at work! But then I realized that work is not as important for me. I am ready to accept being fired. It’s okay if I don’t have a job as long as I continue my activities.
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Shiva: “I am not sure. Maybe she is because of the common things that we experienced in prison. Common things that happened to both of us. There was an incident in prison that I wrote about. They made us confront each other during interrogation. It was very difficult for me. Her name kept coming up in all of my interrogations. I didn’t know Atefeh before I was arrested. When these guys were arrested, Zia Nabavi was a “marked for expulsion” student. A coworker had told me that there were seven of them arrested together, and Atefeh was one of them. Because of Zia, Atefeh became important to me as well. I heard that before they brought Atefeh to prison, she was mistreated. Well, I was trying to defend everyone’s rights [chuckle].
Once, they brought up the issue during my interrogation. It was a few hours process, no need for me to get into details but they brought in Atefeh to confront me. They forced her to deny my allegations and it was a very difficult situation and a very difficult interrogation for me. They brought in Atefeh. She was standing behind me and I was sitting on a chair facing the wall and I was writing things down. He asked me to turn around to see Atefeh and tell her about the claims I made regarding her. I tried to calm the situation down. It was a terrible situation. They were yelling. I said to her: ‘I heard that before you were transferred to prison, there were some immoral acts carried out against you!”
Then one of the interrogators yelled out: “State clearly what immoral acts you are referring to!”
I said, “I don’t know the details. I have heard this and I am just stating what I have heard. I have heard that there have been immoral suggestions made to her.”
I felt like Atefeh’s voice was shaking: “No, no it wasn’t like that at all.”
It was a difficult situation. I had talked about her plight and now she was denying it while two people were standing above us yelling. I said to Atefeh: “I hope that the allegations are not true and I am glad they are not true. But that’s what I have heard.”
At this time, one of the interrogators who claimed that he had come from section 209 yelled: “Shut up with this crap, you dirty piece of garbage.” I objected and said: “What kind of language is this? please be polite.”
The other interrogator kept saying to Atefeh: “You need to press charges against this lady for false claims.”
Atefeh kept saying: “I have no claims against her. How can I file charges against another prisoner?”
They took her to another interrogation room and I overheard them yelling at her.
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“When they took Atefeh to court, the judge’s attitude was not too pleasant toward her. Atefeh called me from the general detention center and said that the judge was completely bias against her, and she explained that the court proceedings were not nice. She felt like the judge was injecting his own personal bias in the case. Considering the heavy sentences coming out of the courts, I was very worried about Atefeh, especially because the Intellignece Ministry was very sensitive about her case due to her family connections. I was worried about a heavy sentence and it did happen: four years of suspended prison time. The important point is that she was cleared of the accusations of having relations with the organization. She was only convicted for participating in the July 4th demonstrations. This was the only thing she had confessed to.
She was sentenced to four years in prison for “acting against the state” and “propaganda against the regime.” It’s interesting. The day we announced the news of her sentence, I noticed that many news organizations only reported it in passing, while other sentences were printed in bold like Abtahi’s six year term. And I thought that we should do something for her, especially because her family was not into protesting or doing any media work.
We decided to start a campaign called: “I am Atefeh” to ask all those arrested after the election or even those who had doubts about the result of the election to write a few lines to the judiciary. Even those who had a hand in her verdict and sympathize with her can write a letter. If she gets a four year sentence for doubting the result of the election and for protesting, then we should all be in jail. We started this campaign to point out that this is a serious matter. Especially for international organizations who pay less attention to those who are not as famous. We wanted to direct their attention to Atefeh or others like her who are in jail and they might get heavy sentences because nobody pays any attention to them.
I think the campaign is going well. We only started it two days ago but a lot has been written about Atefeh. We are planning to send the letters to the prosecutor’s office and to Parliament. This is to let them know what kind of sentences are being handed out by the Revolutionary Court. We will do whatever we can so the appeals court can view this case from a legal perspective, away from political or intelligence service perspectives. We hope for the release of Atefeh.
Translation by Tour Irani for Persian2English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LESHjxQxt5A&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp1at6cuO-w&feature=player_embedded#!
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