Reza Zoghi: Message to the Torturer

Watch on youtube

Each of us have perhaps found ourselves in a situation where we have been bullied by somebody in a powerful position, and remained silent out of expediency or fear. He or she may have been a friend, the neighborhood bully, an interrogator, or even a murderer.

Now imagine that years after the distressing event you have the chance to talk to that person and tell him how you felt, what you think and whatever else is on your mind.

IranWire asked a number of political and civil activists and artists who have been the victims of interrogators, or have been forced to be separated from their families, to imagine they are in the interrogation room and are able to talk to their bully, send him a message, or speak to those responsible for victimizing their family members.

In the fourth part of the series, Mohammad Tangestani asked Reza Zoghi to send his interrogators a message. Zoghi was arrested in the aftermath of the disputed 2009 presidential election for protesting against the official results. He was sent to Kahrizak Detention Center, which became the infamous site for widespread abuse of detainees.

“We were either killed in Kahrizak or we were driven into exile,” Zoghi tells his interrogators in his message. He dismisses claims made by a number of authorities that they were unaware of what was going on and points out that while he was detained at Kahrizak, one of the officials who had denied knowledge had actually visited the detention center by helicopter.

“You chose the most inhuman people,” he says about the guards who dealt with him and the agents posted at Kahrizak. “They were all psychopaths. They were all savages. Otherwise how could they do what they did to people?”

IranWire has recorded a number of messages from victims. And perhaps you have had similar experiences as well. If you have, we ask you to participate in this project. For more information — technical or otherwise — email us at [email protected].