Hello friends,
Two nights ago, I was a guest at the home of my dear friend, Mr. Behzad Homayouni. I told him that in some ways, my conditions in the punitive ward of Kashan prison were tougher than your conditions in the Iraqi prisoner of war camps. He asked, “In what ways?!”
I said, you would go for walks in a large yard during the day, whereas the ward I was in had a very small yard. More importantly, you could see the sky directly, but this was not possible for me, because even the small yard we had was covered with several layers of metal mesh and roofing.
Now that I am writing, I think they had a TV and we did not. I did not even get to see the shape or appearance of a turned-off TV during this time.
They often had pens and paper; we did not. Rarely, and only to write a formal request, I was given a pen along with a sheet of paper, and after a few minutes, they would take them back.
Their fellow prisoners were like-minded individuals, but if I sometimes had three or five fellow inmates, they were people transferred to the small punitive ward, which lacked any facilities, for one or two weeks due to violations in prison, like fights or buying and selling drugs and banned pills, or attacking prison guards. After their punishment period, they would return to the general ward.
On the day they were to return to the general ward, they were as happy as if released from prison!
This time, of the 157 days I was detained, I spent only eighteen days in the general ward and the rest in the same punitive ward. The reason for my transfer from the general ward to the punitive ward was writing the twenty-eighth letter to the leadership from inside prison.
Dear friends,
Today as I write to you coincides with the Arbaeen of Imam Hussein (PBUH). It is the day when the oppressed captives of Karbala were released and came to the sorrowful land of Karbala for mourning, but our prisoners are still captive.
The lady of patience and resilience, Narges Mohammadi, is still in captivity. Abdolfattah Soltani is still in captivity, and many other men and women whose oppression cannot be conveyed by words are detained as well. Let’s pray that no free human being and no innocent person in the world is ever in chains.
Amen, O Lord of the worlds.
Mohammad Mahdavifar
Demolition combatant and diver of the Sacred Defense
Aban 18, 1396 [November 9, 2017]