First there was Neda. Then there was Sohrab. Now there is Taraneh.
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 June 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.
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NCRI Women's Committee calls for release of Taraneh Mousavi ...
But this has all the markings of another Tawana Brawley case. We have absolutely *zero* evidence that this has happened, and when asked for hard evidence of any sort, the bloggers who have conspired to perpetrate this story have refused point blank. One of the three blogs which originated this story has a record of trying to perpetuate transparent hoaxes.
At least in the Tawana Brawley affair, we had a real human being to talk with. Here we don't even know if Taraneh ever existed.
See the article based on the Persian-language sources in http://www.qlineorientalist.com/IranRises/taraneh-musavi/
But the Iranian blogosphere has to take its share of responsibility.
As do people in the West who distribute such dubious material as news.
And maybe if the people protesting against the government treat the abused of their numbers this way, they don't DESERVE to win.
Only by standing up and making such victims the FIRST among their numbers will they have a cause that will deserve to win.
Not just in Iran, or Abu Ghraib, but also in our own backyards.
The 'banished' victims should form a community of support for each other. I believe that the sheer numbers of them could band together and show the world what is happening. They could take to the streets and really harm the government with their numbers. It is insulting to the civilized world that these people should be shamed by their culture. The rest of the world should uphold their honor for fighting and their courage.
The probably learned the techniques from the videos and photos of Contractors at Abu Gharaib.
And secondly, stories like this remind me of the stories of Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators during the invasion of Kuwait. The star witness turned out to be the neice of some Kuwaiti royal, and not a witness at all. But it got the US public all up in arms and supportive of the war.
Why don't you stop being an apologist and denier of the brutality that is being done?
They cannot.
If your god is telling you to kill and rape, then you are listening to the wrong god.
Evil is evil.
The anti-abortion advocates here in the US have the same goal - to deny women authority over their own bodies.
Yes, burn and eternity. Rape not only brutalizes the body but does the same to the soul.
burn and eternity.
Do you think the "official" press is likely to cover such stories?
Take your baloney, and make a sandwich out of it, Bubba.
Why do we have an ICC or UN is they arent going to prosecute or investigate the recent war crimes of our times? Its about time we realise we are all human on this planet and should act like it, policing ourselves more then surrendering rights to local authority.
they stay silent about horrible atrocities countries like iran and myanmar and north korea do to their people. they growled at darfur and retreats quickly when confronted.
yet, the UN is the most generous place to work for. with the huge salaries and benefits they give to themselves and all the junkets they spend, from secretaries to officials, would put to shame goldman sachs and merrill lynch spendings.
i'm just saying.