Former Kurdish Political Prisoner: Torture Destroys Society

In his first interview as president of the United States on January 26, Donald Trump told ABC News that he believes using torture “absolutely” works and that the US should “fight fire with fire.” Although he reported that ultimately he would defer to US intelligence chiefs and his defense secretary on the matter, he said he believed that waterboarding and other torture tactics “absolutely” work.

And of course Trump is not the only head of state to think this way. Prisoners are subjected to torture in numerous countries around the world, including in Iran — both previously under the shah’s regime, and more recently under the Islamic Republic.

Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Zagros Khosravi was one of the leaders of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a leftist militant organization. He was sent to prison, and in the early days of the revolution he joined the Kurdish military forces known as the Peshmerga ("those who face death") in the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan. Khosravi says that over the years, all his friends were captured and executed by the Islamic Republic.

From early 1973 up until the revolution, Khosravi was imprisoned and tortured in the notorious prisons of the shah — Qasr, Evin, Ghezel Ghaleh and Ghezel Hesar. He says that the imprisonment of any political prisoner started with torture. Flogging was the most common form of torture used, as well as beating a prisoner in a “cross-shackled” position [when one hand is tied over the shoulder to the other hand, which is held behind the victim’s back]. Interrogators regularly hung prisoners from the wall or ceiling, secured with these shackles. If the torturers believed the prisoner had information he was not divulging, they increased the savagery of their techniques. “I didn’t experience this, but I was subjected to cross-shackling and it was unbearable,” Khosravi says. “A friend of mine named Saremi from Hamedan was totally paralyzed after this kind of torture and stayed in prison paralyzed. I have no idea what became of him.”

How individuals resist torture can vary. Some prisoners resist it to the point of death, while others break down. Khosravi says he can see how torture helps distance the government or regime from the dissident or prisoner, removing any element of empathy and cultivating hate. “Even those who cannot resist it show their hatred later on,” he says.

When Jimmy Carter became US president in 1977, Khosravi was in prison. In 1977 the shah’s government allowed representatives from the International Red Cross to meet with Iranian prisoners. As a result of this visit, the treatment of prisoners improved, and the level of torture subsided to a degree. “They took us to places to meet Red Cross representatives without the presence of guards,” Khosravi says. “There were some doctors present as well. I remember that one of them, a Swedish guy, interviewed most of the prisoners and most of them talked about torture they had suffered. There was less torture afterward and some items like books, pens and paper were allowed back into the prison.”

“You are released. Now go back to prison!”

Some prisoners served their sentences, but were not released. Zagros Khosravi was one of them. “When my sentence was over, they took me to sign the release form,” he says. “They gave me back my personal belongings but then took me two flight upstairs, took away my belongings and wrote another arrest warrant for me right there. I clearly remember that the charges against me and others were ‘conspiracy’ and ‘activities against national security,’ meaning that they were afraid that if we were released we would immediately start acting against national security! Well, I signed the warrant and stayed in jail for another month and a half.”

Khosravi believes that, under the shah, even if torture led to confessions or prevented an action or hurt a group, another group, even more determined, would step up and join the fight. “They could even learn new tactics in prison and implement them after they were released,” he says. “In my opinion, torture did not intimidate anybody at that time.”

The Islamic Republic’s Tactic of Destroying Families

But Khosravi concedes that the Islamic Republic, unlike the shah’s regime, has actually succeeded in intimidating people. Torture and imprisonment have been much more brutal under the Islamic Republic. “Under the shah, individuals were held responsible and nobody bothered their families,” says Khosravi. “They might arrest the parents for a short while, but only in rare cases, if the person was a recognized leader of an opposition group. But under the Islamic Republic, they exiled my parents from Mahabad to Damghan, my sisters were arrested and they even harassed friends of mine who were not politically active just because they were my friends. They destroyed our families. But under the shah, they left the families alone.”

Torture can leave deep mental wounds that stay with the prisoner for years. “To put it bluntly, none of them are mentally balanced after they leave the prison,” Khosravi says. “They are short-tempered and irritated easily. Their present and future relationships are affected by the torture they have suffered. They get angry too easily. I myself did not get angry so easily before prison. Of course being away from that environment and the passage of time can make things better.”

Not only does Khosravi believe that torture is an ineffective tactic, he says it holds society back as a whole. “Torture and executions are the two most devastating tools of oppression and tyranny,” he says. "And torture is a tool to prevent freedom and peace among people.”

The Islamic Republic also stages occasional public hangings, and Khosravi acknowledges that witnessing this kind of terror has a huge impact on people too. “Watching an execution crushes human dignity — people go to watch them and they do not dare to say ‘No!’” 

What about Opposition Groups?

Critics might condemn the Iranian government's behavior, but what about opposition groups? Do they use torture, and what do they say about it? There have been reports over the years that when armed opposition groups capture Iranian government agents, they also torture their prisoners, or kill them. For Khosravi’s part, he says he can only speak about his group, the Komala Party. “We did not have enough food for ourselves and the Peshmerga, but we shared what we had with them [our prisoners]. Once we were in thick forest and it was difficult to watch over captured Revolutionary Guards. I am not a believer, but they were very religious; they prayed and fasted. During [the holy month of] Ramadan we put on more guards so the prisoners could pray, and we provided them with some amenities. We are proud of this. Write it down: I am ready to go to any international tribunal and swear that not even once did we torture or disrespect a prisoner or a Revolutionary Guard.”

Also in this series 

“The Shah’s Torture Made Us More Resolute”

Torture: From Prisons into the Streets