Testimony
Iran: Mojan, exiled artist, recounts his ordeal in Evin prison
Since 2018, Mojan, now exiled, has been arrested and imprisoned three times in Iran.
© DK / RFI
Text by: Darya Kianpour Follow
7 mins
Mojan, Iranian painter, formerly gallery owner, has just arrived in France.
After a month of incarceration, she was provisionally released and managed to leave the country.
It testifies to the methods used by the Islamic regime in Tehran to recognize, arrest, interrogate and punish those who have been demonstrating since mid-September 2022 in the streets of Iranian cities to demand freedom and democracy.
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Recognized in photos taken by the security services during recent
demonstrations against the Iranian regime
in Tehran, Mojan was arrested at her home one morning in November.
“
It was 9 a.m.
They rang the doorbell.
About
twenty
people.
There were two women among them
, she says.
They photographed the four corners of the house, they took videos.
They searched everything, turned my room upside down and put all my things in garbage bags to take
them
away… My sister intervened to prevent them from taking me on board.
They shoved her violently.
Her face was bruised.
»
Mojan is loaded into a car preceded and followed by two other vehicles.
The two female agents around him in the back seat keep asking him to lower his head.
“
We
drove almost two kilometers before the car
stopped under a bridge. A man came over and handed me a blindfold and ordered me to put it over my eyes. We changed cars and drove off
, ”says Mojan, trembling.
“
Where are you taking me?
asks the young woman several times.
“
Quiet!
Shut up, don't say anything
, ”replied her, according to her, the agents.
The car stops after what seems like an interminable time.
They let her down and walk her, still blindfolded, until she hears the slamming of a metal door.
The blindfold is removed: “
You are in Evin, district 209!
»
She is ordered to remove her jewelry, she continues.
“
The agent behind the counter, while handing me the prisoners' uniform, kept asking me to
lower my
head
so as not to be seen
.
"
From now on, you will be called under the number XXXX. "
When you hear this code, you get ready
,” the man informs him.
When she got to her cell, the guard handed her a garbage bag to put her own clothes in.
"
Kicks, whips
"
From that day on, the interrogations begin.
“
Every day, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., I was taken to an
interrogation room
.
I was hit,
kicked
, whipped.
And I was insulted, I was threatened with rape and death.
Sometimes, after the interrogations, they gave me injections, but I didn't know what the product was!
I was not physically raped, but I was constantly threatened to do so.
During interrogations, “ I
was
shown my photos in the middle of the crowd and asked questions about the people who were in the images.
I didn't know them.
I was asked who I worked for, for which organization, which party... Me,
I had
just participated in the demonstrations for women, for young people, for our freedom and for my country.
»
The interrogating officers, according to Mojan, are all still hooded and seem preoccupied with fear of being recognized.
They often question her about what she knows about them, repeating, “
What did you say about us?
What are you propagating about us?
"
Psychologically, they're
devastated," says Mojan.
I really think they are
afraid,
because they know that this time the population will not give up the fight.
They know it's the end of their reign.
Reign
based
on
repression by
weapons
and
truncheons.
»
"
I was just a wreck
"
The ordeal continues for thirty days, in isolation, without a lawyer, she says: “ I was
told that I
could not seek the help
of a lawyer or
see my family.
»
And the family, for their part, struggled to find Mojan.
Done, it is still necessary to deposit a bond to release the young woman.
No matter what it will cost, relatives rally together, the money is raised and Mojan is released on bail.
On the day of the release, she is told that she is being taken to court.
The agent asks him to give the phone number of a relative.
“
I was lost, I understood nothing.
I didn't remember any numbers.
They took me
to
a square and threw me out of the car.
I was just a wreck, I asked passers-by to help me and take
me
home , ”says the young woman.
This isn't the first time Mojan has been arrested.
The story begins five years earlier.
The painter, feminist, exhibits her work on the anatomy of the female body in her gallery and on her Instagram account.
The women are already in the streets.
It is the movement of the "
girls of the street of the Revolution
".
Each of them brandishes her veil at the end of a rod to protest in particular against dress requirements and to demand equal rights.
Unsurprisingly, Mojan is already among those protesting.
She is spotted, her gallery is closed, she receives warnings.
She decides to leave her country.
At the end of 2018, she arrived in France.
But she continues to receive threats.
At first, she does not attach too much importance to these warnings, but the pressure on her family and the intimidation perpetrated against her become more and more unbearable.
Her decision is made, she returns to Iran.
►
To read:
"They are doing everything to silence us", the Iranian diaspora facing pressure from the regime
Arrested at the airport upon her arrival, she spent 55 days in prison.
“
What did you do abroad?
“, we ask him.
“
Only cultural activities,
” she replies.
“
Lie!
These are political activities.
The verdict falls: “
Five
years in prison, one of which is suspended and 60 lashes.
This time too, Mojan was denied access to a lawyer and visitation.
She is released on bail
.
In 2021, she returns there for a year... And, when she leaves, she continues to campaign, to collaborate with human rights defenders by transmitting to them information on the treatment of prisoners that she witnessed.
Hope brings life
In September 2022, the revolt of young girls followed and supported by men broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, in the premises of the "morals police".
She “ inevitably and enthusiastically
” joins
the protests.
She is in the street, day and night, she tags the walls to write and paint anti-regime slogans.
She is therefore photographed and arrested.
She spends 30 days in prison.
As soon as he leaves, his family asks him to leave the country for good.
She, too, has decided to leave.
"
Even if you hear that I'm dead, you won't come back
," his mother told him.
Mojan considers herself lucky.
Yes, she was tortured.
Admittedly, she does not forget the cries and tears she heard constantly in the corridors of Evin prison, but she was able to get out of it and take the road to exile.
“
What is incomprehensible is Evin's reputation.
Some, especially on the outside, think it is the most horrible prison in Iran.
But they don't know what's going on in the other prisons.
Young people are massacred there without their families even knowing where they are.
»
For almost three weeks, the date of his arrival in France, Mojan has not heard from his family.
She won't try to get any either.
"
It's better for everyone!"
".
Despite everything, she remains more than ever optimistic and determined to continue her fight.
“
I'm sure we'll beat them.
It doesn't matter how long
it
takes.
The population, women and young people are determined to overthrow this barbaric regime.
»
►
To read also:
Protest in Iran: "We are no longer afraid", testifies the director Panah Panahi
Touraj Atabaki, historian: “We are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Islamic regime in Iran”
► To listen:
Iran: crackdown on protesters continues
Iran: four months of revolt repressed in blood
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