This is a picture of a cat.
Reza Alijani

A research project about torture by a media outlet reminded me of issue 43 of Iran Farda. This was a number that we had prepared for Khordad 77 (June 1998). We wanted to break the taboo and discuss torture, but we couldn’t directly address the topic. It was decided that a special section of that issue would focus on “legal opponents” and under that, we would also bring up the discussion of torture and punishment. Planning and discussions were held in the editorial office of Iran Farda, but the final stages were interrupted by the illness of engineer Sahabi and his hospitalization for open heart surgery. The control of the magazine’s phone calls and occasional monitoring by security and intelligence forces had made it clear that we wanted to bring up the topic of torture in this issue. Of course, almost half of the magazine was dedicated to the discussion of legal opponents, and in fact, in the shadow of this discussion, the topic of torture was brought up in the

All tasks were carried out according to the plan. However, some or many materials were prepared under pseudonyms.

A legal expert who has a history of detention and imprisonment has investigated the legal rights of political crimes and examined the issue of violating the law in dealing with political defendants.

We collected and prepared the memories of two well-known individuals who were under pressure in prison: Engineer Lotfollah Meisami and the late Habib Davaran (whose memories, along with Mr. Farhad Behbahani, were later published in a book titled “As a Guest of Haj Agha”).

We prepared the report of the Assembly of Experts when the principle of prohibition of torture was raised and approved, and also prepared some opinions on this matter.

We also discussed the intellectual and religious debate about punishment and torture with three experts (Mr. Yusefi Ashkoori, Mohammad Sadeghi Tehrani, and Mohsen Saeedzadeh) and took their opinions.

The social service of the magazine “Mizgardi” was held under the name of this service, but in reality, it was managed by Saeed Madani, discussing the effects of psychological pressure on prisoners under the title of “Those who said yes and those who said no”. The event was organized with several experts, especially psychologists and neuroscientists, and the topics discussed were very strong and up-to-date.

And finally, the late Hadi Saber, also known as Mostafa Saqeb, produced a research and historical work titled “The Chronicle of Father and Son” about the torture of prisoners between the years 1300 to 1357.

And finally, we have brought a story entitled “The Night Dinner” written by Roman Gary (translated by Abolhasan Najafi), which was given to us by one of our leftist friends. It is a very intense and fascinating story of a prisoner’s encounter with his torturer years after the overthrow of the government in a foreign country and the surprising turn of events between them…

Late at night, my colleagues connected the telephone magazine to the editor-in-chief’s room, where I was working. They didn’t think that at this late hour, a stranger, by the name of [the engineer], would be working with me. They assumed it was someone familiar! It was the intelligence officer who immediately after the start of the conversation, began to threaten the magazine and then revealed himself, saying that you had seen the engineer’s blue eyes and were swimming under water and wanted to take advantage of the special torture supplement… I didn’t know that all the planning had been done long before and in the presence of the engineer in the editorial office. The conversation led to a struggle and the phone was disconnected. It was a critical moment. A big dilemma. As the editor-in-chief of the magazine and at a time when the engineer was hospitalized, I had to make an important decision. In the first moment and stage, I tried not to inform any of the technical colleagues of