The role of torture in recent Iranian politics is the subject of
Ervand Abrahamian's important and disturbing book. Although Iran
officially banned torture in the early twentieth century,
Abrahamian provides documentation of its use under the Shahs and of
the widespread utilization of torture and public confession under
the Islamic Republican governments. His study is based on an
extensive body of material, including Amnesty International
reports, prison literature, and victims' accounts that together
give the book a chilling immediacy.
According to human rights organizations, Iran has been at the
forefront of countries using systematic physical torture in recent
years, especially for political prisoners. Is the government's goal
to ensure social discipline? To obtain information? Neither seem
likely, because torture is kept secret and victims are brutalized
until something other than information is obtained: a public
confession and ideological recantation. For the victim, whose
honor, reputation, and self-respect are destroyed, the act is a
form of suicide.
In Iran a subject's "voluntary confession" reaches a huge audience
via television. The accessibility of television and use of
videotape have made such confessions a primary propaganda tool,
says Abrahamian, and because torture is hidden from the public, the
victim's confession appears to be self-motivated, increasing its
value to the authorities.
Abrahamian compares Iran's public recantations to campaigns in
Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of
early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format,
language, and imagery. Designed to win the hearts and minds of the
masses, such public confessions--now enhanced by
technology--continue as a means to legitimize those in power and to
demonize "the enemy."
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