Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, sentenced to 44 years in prison for political activism, is critically ill, with her family warning she may soon die in custody. In an exclusive excerpt from her writings, smuggled out of prison at great risk, she describes the horror of solitary confinement.
Mohammadi recounts that her cell had no ventilation, with only a small window covered by a perforated metal sheet. She writes that time itself becomes delusional in solitary confinement, as day and night pass without measure. She dared not take afternoon naps, fearing she would lose all sense of time, waking unsure if it was still today, yesterday, or tomorrow.
The cell is described as unbearably dense, with time feeling compressed and wrinkled. Staring at the tiny holes in the metal sheet, she saw no movement, as if time itself stood still. When night fell, it felt as if a whole year had passed, driving a person to madness.
Occasionally, a bell would shatter the silence, signalling an interrogation. A female warden would retrieve her, and she would be ordered to put on a blindfold and chador before leaving the cell. She describes the walk through a foul-smelling corridor, past a dirty tarpaulin curtain, to the interrogation room, where a man’s voice would take custody of her.
Through these walks, she learned that more than ten corridors branched off the main one, each containing about five cells. Blindfolded, she would enter the interrogation room, suspended in the centre of the space, until a man’s voice brought her back to reality.
