by Nina Somera, Isis International

Ruptured womb and anus.

This was how a nurse described the state of a beautiful woman who was rushed by men who have so much to say on her nightmares in the last days of her life.

On 19 July 2009, Taraneh Mousavi, 29 was arrested during the post-election crackdown by the authorities including the basiji, the paramilitary wing closely associated with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Along with 14 other protestors, she was taken to an interrogation and torture centre but was never released nor turned over to the police. While her friends were reunited with their families, Taraneh remained detained in the weeks that followed.

One witness who saw her at Evin prison said that she was repeatedly gang-raped for some days. This telling tale become more and more probable as an anonymous caller tipped off her frantic parents, saying that their only child was admitted to the Imam Khomeini hospital because of an “accident.” But the couple failed to find her in any of the beds nor her name in the hospital’s registry. In consolation, a nurse confirmed that an unconscious woman matching Taraneh’s description was brought in by basiji forces. But to their horror, they learned that the woman was unconscious with torn uterus and anus.

Taraneh is definitely not the first nor the last persons to have suffered such immense humiliation and denigration, which are many times harsher than a swift death particularly in a culture that prizes virginity. Recently, an opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi spoke of the unspeakable truth on the plight of protesters who are still detained: Rape has become systematic in the country’s prisons that it was not only done to women but to men as well.

Sexual abuse is indeed a powerful silencing tool as rape isolates a woman and a man from a community that puts a premium on virginity and virility. Such torture tries to forclose for its subjects the possibility of smooth reintegration into their families and communities, where personal sense of identity and security is drawn. It kills the human spirit long before the body breathes its last.

As Shirin Sagade notes, “Prison abuse and torture is also about marking these victims as defiled human beings -- it's like a scarlet letter of social isolation against them, to deny them the community support and strength which they need to move past those memories and not be defined by them. This is where others can step in and change the very attitudes toward abuse which so many institutions count on when they commit these crimes.”

But the use of rape in the country’s prisons and interrogation centres is also telling of the very semblance of legitimacy and control that the fundamentalist regime desperately projects, even in the name of religion.

Karroubi’s remarks only embolden communities to further sift through the character of the political leadership and rise above religious, social and cultural valuations that the regime has used to silence dissent and remain in power. They expose the multiple ruptures and deep wounds behind the plastered profile of Ahmadinejad and his administration that has so much to answer for the nightmares of daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, relatives and friends.

Unless the tales of Taraneh and many others are told, heard and addressed, the wounds will never heal.

Sources:
Communications with women in Iran.
Kuwait Times. (15 August 2009). “Karroubi presses torture allegations.”
Sagedi, Shirin. (15 July 2009). “The Rape of Taraneh: Prison Abuse of Iran's Protesters.”