It was the 11th of Ordibehesht month in the year 1385 and International Workers’ Day; it was decided that together with our comrades from the “Left Radical” group – who later became “Student Movement for Freedom and Equality” and eventually disbanded – we would join the protesting dismissed workers in front of the company’s union.

We arrived at the location with our placards and slogans that we had voted on for each of them, and we thought that there would be no problem. The gathering took shape and we started raising our placards and chanting along with the workers. Although the police were watching and the ministry officials were taking pictures, there was no particular issue and we thought that the gathering would end without any confrontation.

Until a few people were found who apparently wanted to report on the gathering; immediately the police attacked and arrested them. The police attacked one of them who resisted, with difficulty, with batons and fists and kicks; some of their friends also intended to help and eventually some of them were arrested and some of our friends. After the gathering, we found out that these friends were human rights activists and the one who was beaten was Kian Rafiei, the secretary of the human rights activists group in Iran.

“منظوری برای آینده”

“A Vision for the Future”
The beginning of the conflict in the gathering in front of the union of the single company and the arrest of Kian Rafiei – 1385 – Photo from the archive of human rights activists in Iran.

Those days, we did not have a positive view of human rights activists and their work seemed more like playing around to us; but it was interesting to see that the police were more sensitive to the possibility of a gathering than the gathering itself. This was my first encounter with a group of human rights activists.

After December 2007, when the freedom-seeking and equality-seeking students were suppressed, while our collective feeling was that the major media outlets were discriminating or neglecting to report on the detention of more than forty students, the human rights activists, including groups, were among those who regularly published news of the detention of our comrades.

After being arrested and entering Ward 350 of Evin Prison, the topic of discussion was the widespread arrest of human rights activists. They had all been arrested in the month of Esfand in 1388 and transferred to Ward 2-A of Evin. Based on my experience of our group’s extensive arrest in 1386 and knowing that the security apparatus is not satisfied with anything less than completely eradicating the group, I guessed that their work was done; but it wasn’t. Later, after several months of interrogation, some of their children were sentenced to heavy punishments and sent to Ward 350.

It was the month of Bahman in the year 1389 and I had just been exiled to Rajai Shahr prison. All the political prisoners were gathered in Hall 12 and were deprived of phone calls; meaning that they had locked the room where the public phones were located and prisoners were only allowed to communicate with the outside world on visiting days. The reason for this deprivation was clear: news from inside the prison and the pressures of the guards should not find their way outside.

There, I became acquainted with Behrouz Javid Tehrani; from the generation of activists of the July 1999 uprising and the old prisoners of Rajai Shahr. A few days later, an unknown political prisoner, who had been tortured and harassed in detention, was transferred to my ward and we wanted to somehow pass on the news to the outside of the prison.

In Rajai Shahr prison, due to the presence of former political prisoners and their connections with non-political prisoners, there was access and the possibility to buy mobile phones, although it was very difficult and expensive. However, in order to prevent the transmission of news, the prison installed jamming devices around the cells and the mobile phone reception was weak. These devices were multiplied around the political cells and it was not possible to send news with a mobile phone. Even once, our attempt to break and disable the jamming devices with a primitive weapon, a slingshot, was unsuccessful. The only way to break the jamming was in the phone room; the problem was that they could have disconnected the phones from the center and there was no guarantee that even by accepting the risk of breaking in, we would be successful. But even a small chance and a glimmer of hope in prison was worth risking.

“این عکس یک منظره زیبا از کوهستان است که در آن آسمان آبی و ابرهای سفید قرار گرفته اند.”

This photo is a beautiful landscape of a mountain where the blue sky and white clouds are placed.
Hrana documents human rights violations – photos from the archive of human rights activists in Iran.

Behrouz had examined the door and it was possible to break the middle wooden layer, bend the metal sheet, and create a hole to enter. It had to be done very quietly so that neither the children would wake up nor the sound would reach the guards. In short, Behrouz and another friend started working and I accompanied them as a guard. I don’t remember how difficult it was, whether it took one night or two, but they finally succeeded and the only one who could enter through that hole was me. The wood and debris on the ground were not a problem, but it was winter and extremely cold, and if I wanted to put on clothes, the small space would not allow it. I went inside through the hole, turned on the room light, and saw a telephone room with five or six booths. I picked up one of the phones, it was ringing and that meant the phones were connected. I dialed a number, hoping someone would be awake. Someone

Although after a few days, the prison officials became aware of it and cut off the phones, but it became a lesson for me that there is always a way for communication; a window, a doorway towards freedom, and a prisoner knows the value of these windows more than anyone and finds it.

When I left Iran and entered Turkey, I had decided to give up political activities forever; I realized that I could not consider myself a political activist who intends to bring about change in Iranian society from abroad. I was almost certain that besides occasional posts on Facebook and memories of my comrades, I would not engage in any further activities.

However, about a year has passed since I started my activity in Herana as the editor-in-chief of this news agency, and with the help of anonymous and proud activists, we have tried to highlight the unique features of Herana more than ever before; accurate, fast, and independent reporting on human rights with the aim of promoting it, not only independent from the government but also independent from the government’s opponents, avoiding discrimination and any political views, being a window in the walls of prisons and detention centers, reminding the forgotten, giving voice to the voiceless, being on the margins and at the bottom, and shining light on the darkest corners where the rights and dignity of humans are suppressed.

“این تصویر یک پسر کوچک در حال بازی با یک ماشین اسباب بازی است.”

“This image is of a little boy playing with a toy car.”
“Advertising banner for the launch of Herana News Agency and its former logo.”

Both at that time as an external observer and today from within, I believe that the performance of human rights activists in Iran has been completely positive, defensible, and unique. These activists have never been limited to the names we know, but rather a collection of anonymous reporters who have been the narrators of silent and distant fates, intellectuals whose names are never mentioned due to their humility and sometimes fear of suppression, or those who could not even believe in their own human rights before and now it has become their belief. Former prisoners who have been released and now know their rights, and their branches can identify any violation of human rights from a distance.

I believe that with the simultaneous growth of society’s awareness and communication tools, and in a situation where every citizen is an armed reporter armed with tools to record human rights violations, the efforts and sacrifices of anonymous reporters, human rights activists, and individuals, will step into the second decade of their lives in a better and more promising situation.