Iran – Part of Interview by Michael Cavna with Iranian Artist Atena Farghadani
Interview of Washington Post with the of a female prisoner after the release
the part of interview By Michael Cavna with Iranian artist Atena Farghadani.
Atena was already an experienced activist in her 20s when she drew a cartoon mocking Iran’s parliament to protest her native nation’s anti-birth control policies. She was arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in the summer of 2014 — her freedom taken from her. She [was] recently release from prison
One of the things that has had [a] destructive impact on me after my release was the incarceration in the gruesome Gharchak prison, which is for prisoners with all sorts of non-security crimes. What bothered me the most was to see inmates — many of whom were victims of the economic and cultural poverty in the Iranian system — who were not treated like human beings; their most basic rights were violated. I consider Gharchak prison as a graveyard of time … where time dies. I sometimes see those inmates in my nightmares. Once, I saw one of them collecting and braiding my fallen hair!
I see myself as a reflection of other people, and to respond to this question of yours, I would like to reflect the wishes of other women imprisoned in Gharchak — most of them longed for cool drinking water, instead of the salty lukewarm water they had to drink from the tap. There were only four showers in each chamber for 189 inmates, with the same salty water for only an hour a day, so many of them missed a hot shower! Many of them [condemned to] death sentences wished to plant something that wouldn’t wither from the salty water and [to] see that plant — to leave a living mark before departing from this life.
Extracted from interview By Michael Cavna with Iranian artist Atena Farghadani
Care for Humans in Iran
