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

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.

 

Comments

[QLineOrientalist]

The Ahmandinejad regime has been responsible for atrocities against women prisoners--the Zahra Bani-Yaaqub and Zahra Kazem cases are clear enough evidence of that. The fact that Said Mortazavi, under whose watch these atrocities were committed, is still in office shows the culture of impunity which reigns there.
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/

[wereeverywhere]

A free press exposed the Tawana Brawley fiasco, and even then it took a while if I recall correctly. The police state atmosphere of IRI on the press is no place to expect corroborating witnesses giving names and addresses. This reported rape only shows how IRI's attitude to truth and transparency.

[QLineOrientalist]

Interesting way of looking at it.
But the Iranian blogosphere has to take its share of responsibility.
As do people in the West who distribute such dubious material as news.

[musicmuse]

There have been serious doubts raised about this particular story. Most of these issues have been discussed in Persian publications online. For an excellent overview of all of these questions, (in English with links to the Persian sources) please take a look at the blog post on Dr.. Evan Siegel's Iran Rises: http://www.qlineorientalist.com/IranRises/taraneh-musavi/

[AlliBearBear]

Nothing new at this blog.

[TXfemmom]

What the state has done is monstrous, but the families of the people who have been traumatized, and society as a whole doesn't deserve freedom if they permit the perpetrators to destoy the lives of their loved ones by traumatizing them. The people who are abused should be offered the best that society can offer them, but they turn away and stigmatize them. This is a society which is very sick.

[FreelanceMinion]

I do not for a minute want to take condemnation away from the government and guards for allowing and perpetrating such abuse, but there is nothing we in the West can do for Iranians if they will buy into the idea that people who have been abused by the state, and particularly sexually abused, are the ones who have brought shame on themselves.

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.

[MaggieMamacat]

The people who commit these crimes and those who cover them up and lie are monsters. The people who shun the victims are only a little less monstrous. Don't they realize that if they honored these martyrs to freedom instead of punishing them, they would rob the violators of what they wanted the most? You never hear of someone saying, "My cousin was wounded at a demonstration...I'll never speak to him again since he was clumsy enough to step in front of a bullet." It's every bit as stupid to ostracize someone who has been raped. Can anyone explain to me why the victims are blamed?

[jalowe1957]

There are many ways to rape and violate a person.

Not just in Iran, or Abu Ghraib, but also in our own backyards.

[ModernTimes1]

In logic we call this kind of nonsense a red herring fallacy.

[TheBlackCat]

It is true that in many cultures, in many places, a victim is thought completely spoiled after a rape. It's tragic. The crime occurs twice: once whent he original rape occurs, and then again for an eternity when society decides that the victim has been fundamentally altered and shamed.

[Lynn McKinney]

I wonder what a world would be like if men didn't have d!cks? How would they function or think?? How could they rule or make decisions without the 'main head' guiding them?? Hmmmm??

[VirginiaJeff]

It's not about the sex for these guys. It's about the humiliation. What would the world be like? The particular men who perpetrate these crimes would find other gruesome ways to humiliate people even without their appendages.

[MediaIsMessage]

This seems too convenient to be true and somewhat over the top. IRI is brutal but in an Islamic system of justice/injustice, sexual behavior or punishment is strictly coded and enforced. It is highly improbable that government of Iran (or other theocracies in the world) would actually sanction such acts since there is little intelligence value and negative PR far outweighs any potential benefits. It seems to me that someone has decided to recycle African stories of rape and use it in Iran's case. It is surprising why a former Al-Jazeera reporter would write such non-news.

[Lynn McKinney]

I am afraid that the world that has been reported is more than true. To deny that this is happening shows that 'blind eye' that is turned to anything concerning this. The sadness of a victim that has been so brutalized being shunned by their friends and families is barbarian.

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.

[VirginiaJeff]

I've read stories of American hostages who were quickly sexually abused by their guards. The discipline in the jails of Islamic countries is not better than anywhere else.

[triplbee]

Are you kidding?

[FreelanceMinion]

They don't have to "officially sanction" it, they simply refuse to investigate or stop it. They all probably know it goes on, and from the top down they don't do anything to stop it, they even promote and transfer people who do it without ever talking about the specific acts (the way we encouraged Abu Gahrib, harsh interrogations, etc.).

And don't think for a minute that people who claim to have a religious motive that says it upholds principles A and B won't in an instant declare that people who politically oppose them don't qualify for protection of those principals.

Negative PR? Who cares about that when your society reflexively shuns the VICTIMS?

[Sirdi]

As I said in my previous message that was tossed by our esteemed Censors...

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.

[toobusy]

Yes of course because these people have never used these forms of torture before that right?/ sarc
Why don't you stop being an apologist and denier of the brutality that is being done?

[nccanuck]

Learned the techniques from Abu Ghraib, you can't be serious. Are you really that deluded to think that atrocities like this haven't happened before but people learned it from us! Get your head out of the sand (I'm being kind here) and read some history. Then again, you sound like someone who thinks that slavery was never practiced in the North and it was just a Southern thing. Maybe you need to take a look and see that you are misguided when it comes to reality and facts.

[wereeverywhere]

Right. Obviously it's all about the US all the time everywhere, all you have to do is fill in the blanks.

Do you have any idea how IRI treats its political prisoners?

[FreelanceMinion]

NO, no, no. I'm no Pollyanna about the behavior of our government or its allies, but no one has had to teach any other nation or group about the use of weaponized rape. I am sure they came up wit it totally on their own and have probably been practicing it since the start of the Republic, just as it was probably practiced under the Shah.

[PlayTOE]

How can the leaders of Iran claim "moral authority" while condoning/authorising acts of brutality?
They cannot.

If your god is telling you to kill and rape, then you are listening to the wrong god.
Evil is evil.

[AbrahamSadegh]

Their god has nothing to do with Islam, if that is what you are implying. Their god is a god made in their own image but unfortunately they don't seem to realize that.

[Sirdi]

Whew. I hope you two come from a land that's murder/rape-free - having been shown the way by the "right God". And I wonder where that land may be... the name better not begin with a "U".

[zizyphus]

"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)"

The anti-abortion advocates here in the US have the same goal - to deny women authority over their own bodies.

[VirginiaJeff]

No, they don't. Most of them, at least, are genuinely concerned about unborn babies. Don't start mindlessly lumping together groups of people you don't agree with.

[camanokat]

Maybe they are concerned about "unborn babies" but they sure don't give a dam after they're born.

[Mike4Obama]

Horrible. I hope those prison guards burn in hell for eternity.

[Sirdi]

That's a bit much for rape, don't you think? Eternity? Burn?

[toobusy]

No, yes and yes

[Lynn McKinney]

seems as if your brain is much like your pic, there Sirdi. Obviously you don't have daughters or young sons.......or you enjoy a bit of violence, yourself.

Yes, burn and eternity. Rape not only brutalizes the body but does the same to the soul.

burn and eternity.

[lisa010]

Do you know what we're talking about here?

I can't believe you do.

Why don't you volunteer at your local rape crisis center and then get back to us.

www.rainn.org

[Hass]

This is such baloney. Since when did what anonymous people report to blogs constitute factual news?

[citlali]

It's always more comfortable to deny the many stories coming out of, in the current instance, Iran, than to contemplate the horror of a society cannibalizing its citizens, no?

Do you think the "official" press is likely to cover such stories?

Take your baloney, and make a sandwich out of it, Bubba.

[Sirdi]

Agreed.

[bismillah001]

Welcome to Huffpo, dude

[wereeverywhere]

IRI never hurts its own people or hampers reporters in any way, right? I hope your beloved theocracy is smashed to bits. Long live a free Iran.

[petalsbloom]

You will get this from journalists and bloggers in general. I have a friend who's an aspiring journalist and a sister who's a blogger- you'd be amazed at how much their colleagues are at a liberty to manipulate and filter information according to their biases. Trust me, the public eats it up, especially if it conforms to their views. And when we're talking about nations like Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, and so on, Americans will glady use poorly researched news reports to affirm their beliefs about these countries' "backward" governments and their "barbaric" actions without putting any of the hubub into a sociocultural or historic context.
Not that I'm saying anything about this story. It's a horrific, heartbreaking post. But I shut down a bit everytime a blogger uses condemning language on something, be it a story of event, for which they have little hard evidence. I'm naturally inclined to ask about sources and details!

[wereeverywhere]

You realize that there's a media clampdown in IRI right now? Someone with a notepad or a mic walking around interviewing people would quickly be thrown in Evin prison. Many journalists and bloggers were thrown in during 'freer' times- and some have been killed in there. No reason to have blind faith in anything, but please look at the context and IRI's terrible legacy of human rights abuse.

[windup]

The description of what was done to this woman and young man is more than rape. It is physical and life-threatening assault.

[TrnsNtnl]

Seriously rupture of the womb and anus is a horrific crime of brutal rape leaving women estranged from their communities all over the world in brutal conflict. Iran, congo, afgahnistan. These women live the rest of their lives with health problems and stigmas most can not deal with. The men being raped in some places can have even more of a hard time of it.

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.

[TruthfullyYours]

the UN is becoming obsolete as each day passes. it seems like they're only a good forum for other countries to come in a bash the hand that feeds them, and they have the gall to chastise the U.S. for not paying its contribution in full.

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.

[mivogo]

If you want to understand the UN, look at the "human rights" summits they keep having to gleefully bash Israel while ignoring horrific, ongoing atrocities (forced rape and stoning of women, hanging of gays) in the nations participating in and hosting these conferences.