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Testimonial

Iran: a child of the gallows

// A series of testimonials for the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty (1)*

On 10 October 2019, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and abolitionist organisations around the world celebrate the 17th World Day Against the Death Penalty. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2019 is dedicated to children whose parents have been sentenced to death or executed. It is well-documented that the psychological and emotional trauma experienced by a child when a parent is sentenced to death or executed has long-term and often devastating effects. This series of testimonials makes space for these children who had to grow up in the shadow of death. They talk about the death penalty in their own words.

Homan M. was born in prison. Both his parents were executed for political reasons in 1986 and 1988. He tells about his upbringing in a repressive environment and his own experience as a political prisoner.

This testimonial was collected by Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran and Iran Human Rights // in partnership with the World coalition against death penalty.

This was my everyday dark story as a child.

“The shadow of my parents' executions hung over me”

I WAS BORN in prison, on Yalda, the night of the winter solstice, in 1986. A month earlier, my father had been arrested on fake charges of cooperating with a banned opposition group. He was taken to the Adelabad prison in Shiraz and was executed within weeks. By then, my mother and my aunt had been arrested as well. My mother gave birth in Adelabad prison. I spent the first two years of my life there. In 1988, my mother was executed as part of a five-month wave of mass executions of political prisoners. For the rest of my life, the shadow of my parents’ executions hung over me.

I was raised by my aunt after she was released from prison. An older brother and sister had been placed among other relatives and lived far away. My upbringing was difficult, marked by poverty and neglect. There was no fatherly hand on my shoulder, no motherly affection.

I wished that they would throw a birthday party for me and that someone would buy me a gift, but it never happened.

I was 12 when I received my first summons to the Shiraz division of the Intelligence Ministry. I had done nothing wrong to attract the gaze of the security services. This was my everyday dark story as a child.

They wouldn’t let me study at university at first. I got permission after they forced me to sign a commitment letter to avoid any student political activity. I was arrested in April 2010, nearly a year after the disputed presidential victory of Mahmud Ahmedinejad sparked massive street protests and thousands of arrests. I was arrested for participating in, and documenting, the Green Movement protests. I cried throughout the incident. I felt so much pressure, and finally, the interrogation ended.

I was tortured for seven months in a cell of Evin Prison’s infamous Section 209. They told me every single day: “we are going to execute you like your parents”.

I was thinking they might come back and take me to the gallows at any moment, as they did with my family. I was raised with the understanding that innocent people can be captured and executed. In the end, my trial was over in 20 minutes without any lawyer. My sentence: three years in prison, a ban from all state universities, fines, and 74 lashes. I really felt no regrets about having gone into the streets to film the demonstrators, to help make sure the world heard their voices. It felt good.

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