1. In the movie Once Upon a Time in America, David Aaronson (Robert De Niro) returns to his old neighborhood after years and gives a short and thought-provoking answer to the question “What have you been doing all these years?” He says, “I used to go to bed early at night!”

Nighttime sleep is a solution for forgetting. But the only solution is in freedom. In the four walls of a prison, under the heavy shadow of wakefulness, there is no cure for forgetfulness, there is no sleep.

Two. Before going to prison, I never knew that the Islamic Republic’s radio network had a channel called Radio Ava. It seems to me that the majority of viewers of this network are prisoners who have been deprived of listening to the liberating sound of beautiful music for years. For a prisoner, hearing music after months of isolation and deprivation is a pleasure beyond imagination.

This magical box fills a significant part of a prisoner’s life, and in deprived prisons such as Tehran’s Great Prison, prisoners compete fiercely for the opportunity to be in rooms with televisions.

It is not surprising that a significant portion of viewers of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s television are prisoners; of course, until they have access to new opportunities. These opportunities vary from prison to prison. In a place like Rajai Shahr (or Gohardasht), smuggled flash drives are sold at high prices, while in a place like Evin Prison, prisoners have purchased their own DVD players. From then on, the main form of entertainment for prisoners is watching TV series on domestic channels.

3. Before going to prison, I had never experienced watching such series as “Forbidden”, “Outlaw”, “Frog”, “Innocent”, “Aghazadeh”, “Neighbors”, “Professional”, “Lion Skin”, and so on. Watching these series takes up a lot of a prisoner’s life. These series, despite all their weaknesses compared to foreign examples, easily replace even the Islamic Republic’s television in prison.

Four. The reason for this substitution is the distinguishing points and visual and narrative beauties of these series, which provide a unique experience for a prisoner in the conditions of deprivation from a real life.

One of the visual attractions is the presence of women with beautiful faces and different coverings from formal definitions, evoking real life and a brief experience of the feeling of life in a completely masculine environment. In other words, the feminine closeness is in a completely masculine environment. This is the opposite of the television series of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which lack such attractiveness; series based on presenting a formal and unreal image of women that is incompatible with the norms of Iranian society today.

Home network series are filled with scenes of women and men talking about love, images of dancing and stomping, and eye-catching celebrations.

Luxurious locations, modern urban spaces, and even beautiful images of nature presented in these series are another part of the visual appeal for viewers.

Furthermore, we must mention the storytelling attractions of these series. Unlike the series on national television, the series on home entertainment networks are full of stories that cross official red lines. Their scenarios are based on love triangles, mutual betrayals, historical events, sports competitions, bitter social realities, and more, creating excitement, suspense, and tension for a prisoner; things that a person in prison is in dire need of and have a greater impact than psychological remedies.

The level of interest among prisoners in these series is such that competition between rooms, halls, and even cells to access the series that enter the prison has become a normal occurrence. Constantly watching these series, even 24 hours a day in prison, is not an unusual thing.

In fact, in any prison where such a possibility exists, watching the channels of the Islamic Republic’s radio and television is practically marginalized and limited to its news sections.

It is predictable that controlling and monitoring the sound and image of television series on home networks means losing these visual and narrative attractions; a monitoring that is likely not as harsh and bitter for any other group as it is for prisoners, the reason for which is clear: prisoners have no other alternative.

Five. In prison and under the conditions of being awake for hours, the treatment for a large number of prisoners is watching TV series on the home entertainment network. These series, with all their flaws, in limited conditions, provide a possibility for dreaming of freedom, a possibility for a moment of relief from the heaviness of prison, a possibility for simple collective joys, a possibility for…

For the Islamic Republic, however, eliminating these small possibilities is a systematic habit; as if we are faced with a masochistic system that takes pleasure in depriving its citizens of any small opportunities.

Controlling the volume of TV shows on home networks eliminates these small possibilities.