by Mehrdad B

It was the winter of 1983 in the hallways of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. My eyes were blindfolded and I was placed with my back to the wall, waiting to be interrogated. I could hear the voices of the lashes and screams of other prisoners under torture. The passing of each second becomes unbearable in such circumstances.

I could feel prison guards, interrogators, prisoners all coming and going. Tortured prisoners were brought, falling to the ground from their pains… First names were called… I was in my thoughts: what will happen when my turn comes up? Can I endure all the torture, or will I give in? And so many other questions…

I could hear the sounds of a woman being whipped in a nearby room which was truly painstaking. I was in my own thoughts when I felt a small hand and heard a childish voice: “Please don’t let them hit my mom!!!” I was left numb. It was as if I had become paralyzed. Who is this child? What is he doing in this torture chamber?! He put his second hand on my arm and called me again. I gently set aside my blindfold. When I saw him his two beautiful blue eyes that were full of tears just baffled me. They were like two blue pearls and I just couldn’t stop looking at them. I asked myself what is this little angel doing in this hellhole? I took him into my arms despite knowing that the prison guards could realize and begin beating me. It was the young boy just needed someone to hug and he just couldn’t stop his tears. As if he had reached a safe haven and someone to lean on. My own pains aside, now I was asking myself what should I do and what should I say?

I was in these thoughts when the torture room opened and they brought a female prison out with bloody legs; the little angel screamed “Mom!” and ran towards her. He threw herself on his mother’s legs as if he wanted to stop its bleeding somehow. His mother tried to take him into her arms but she just couldn’t. One of the torturers standing above them was laughing and mocking the child in saying, “Tell your mother to talk, or else there will be more of this to come.” He was pointing to an electric cable used as lashes. However, I saw a strange scene there where this beautiful angel standing against this torturer, clinching his fist in hatred, trying to protect his mother. The woman suddenly became very ill and they took her away. However, the little angel was always beside his mother’s side.

Seeing such scenes, that truly breaks the heart of every human being, I just couldn’t stop my tears. However, I quickly wiped them off so that prison guards and torturers wouldn’t see me and enjoy such a scene.

Many years passed and I never saw that little angle again, whom I couldn’t even get the name of. Despite the passing of many years, I can still remember those two beautiful pearls. Then I ask myself, whatever happened to that innocent child?

Like this child there are so many others in my country today, suffering under the fundamentalist ayatollahs and living in a big prison called Iran. Orphaned children, those sleeping on the streets, and others forced into harsh labor just to get something to eat. So, what is the solution?

The solution lies in changing this inhumane regime! The solution lies in a secular government believing in the separation of church and state; a government respecting human rights and women’s rights. The solution lies in a non-nuclear Iran far from exporting barbarity and insanity under the banner of Islam. Today, this solution is led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance.