Houshang Asadi
Encyclopedia
Houshang Asadi is an Iran
ian journalist
and writer
.
. During his time in prison, under duress he confessed to being an agent of the SAVAK,(Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sāzemān-e Ettela'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar, National Intelligence and Security Organization) the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
He was jailed during the reign of Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, and in 1974, with Ali Khamenei
:
He was a deputy editor of Kayhan
newspaper until 1979.
After the Islamic Revolution he was forced to leave his job.
Then he wrote some books including "Nan"(means bread).
In 1981, he was arrested, imprisoned in Moshtarek prison, and was sentenced to death, and then 15 years of prison.
He was kept in solitary confinement more than 2 years, and during this period he was torture
d badly to such extent that he attempted suicide
.
He was freed after 6 years, and then he translated books of Yosa and Marquez.
He was member of the Writers Association of Iran and the Syndicate of the Iranians Journalists, and the co-founder of the Association of Iranian Film Critics and Script Writers.
He was the chief editor of a film magazine called Gozaresh-e-Film.
However, he was put under pressure by Islamic Republic
agents, and forced to leave Iran in 2003, fearing for his life. Now he lives in France
, where he has written his latest book: Letters To My Torturer: Love, Revolution And Imprisonment In Iran." (Oxford: One world publication). His torturer, "Brother Hamid", became an Iranian diplomat, but after the book publication, was recalled into retirement.
He co-founded the Persian-language news website Roozoline.
He is married to Nooshabeh Amiri.
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Life
He was a member of the Tudeh Party of IranTudeh Party of Iran
The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mohsen Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddeq's campaign to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and his term as prime...
. During his time in prison, under duress he confessed to being an agent of the SAVAK,(Persian: ساواک, short for سازمان اطلاعات و امنیت کشور Sāzemān-e Ettela'āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar, National Intelligence and Security Organization) the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service established by Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
He was jailed during the reign of Shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
, and in 1974, with Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
:
On a cold winter day in 1975, I was about to be transferred from the cell we'd been sharing. [Khamenei], who was very thin, was shaking. I was wearing a sweater, which I took off and gave to him. He first resisted and didn't want to take it. When he finally accepted it and put it on, we hugged each other. He cried and told me, "Houshang, when Islam will come to power, not a single tear will be shed."
He was a deputy editor of Kayhan
Kayhan
Kayhan is an influential newspaper in Iran. Directly under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader, it is regarded to be "the most conservative Iranian newspaper."...
newspaper until 1979.
After the Islamic Revolution he was forced to leave his job.
Then he wrote some books including "Nan"(means bread).
In 1981, he was arrested, imprisoned in Moshtarek prison, and was sentenced to death, and then 15 years of prison.
He was kept in solitary confinement more than 2 years, and during this period he was torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d badly to such extent that he attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
He was freed after 6 years, and then he translated books of Yosa and Marquez.
He was member of the Writers Association of Iran and the Syndicate of the Iranians Journalists, and the co-founder of the Association of Iranian Film Critics and Script Writers.
He was the chief editor of a film magazine called Gozaresh-e-Film.
However, he was put under pressure by Islamic Republic
Islamic republic
Islamic republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mauritania. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian...
agents, and forced to leave Iran in 2003, fearing for his life. Now he lives in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he has written his latest book: Letters To My Torturer: Love, Revolution And Imprisonment In Iran." (Oxford: One world publication). His torturer, "Brother Hamid", became an Iranian diplomat, but after the book publication, was recalled into retirement.
He co-founded the Persian-language news website Roozoline.
He is married to Nooshabeh Amiri.
Reviews
There are some bumps in the narrative—it is not clear at some points when Mr. Asadi is addressing Brother Hamid, for instance, and whether some passages were written on command, as part of his elaborate "confession" in jail, or some years later in Paris....
Nevertheless, Mr. Asadi has offered the world a powerful testament to what transpires in the prisons of Iran—a nightmare that the country's radical Islamic leadership clearly would be only too happy to export.
Asadi elliptically maps his trajectory from bright-eyed political idealist to a man so broken he once drank what he thought was a bottle of bleach left in his cell in an attempt to end his life, blending in fragments of recent Iranian political history.
Asadi’s ‘decade of intense horror’ ended in 1989 when he was released but for many more it surely continues.