Witness Statement of Atusa

February 14, 2020

8 minutes read

Name : Atusa*

Place of Birth: Tehran, Iran

Date of Birth: 1988

Occupation: University Student

Interviewing Organization: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC)

Date of Interview: October 23, 2019

Interviewer: IHRDC Staff

This statement was prepared pursuant to an interview with Atusa. It was approved by Atusa on February 7, 2020. There are 25 paragraphs in the statement.

The views and opinions of the witness expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

*Pseudonym assigned to protect the identity of the witness.

Statement

Introduction

I was born in 1988 in Tehran

Sexual Assault

One night in December 2017 or January 2018, I wanted to take a cab home from Seyed Khandan Bridge. Two chador-clad women were siting on the back seat [of a cab]. I sat in the front passenger seat. The two ladies got off [before me]. When approaching Apadana Avenue, I told [the driver] that I would have the cab to myself from that point on, because our home is at the end of a street, and I would have had to walk there. Everything was normal. The driver’s interactions with the two ladies had been very normal, and, in fact, I had gotten on that cab because those two women were also in it. It was about 10 pm.

The end of our street leads to Haghani Expressway. When I was about to disembark, he suddenly accelerated and went into the expressway. I was shocked. Usually there are few people out on Haghani Expressway at that hour. He was driving and I was screaming. It went toward Resalat Tunnel. Then it went into Kurdistan Expressway.

I was constantly begging and pleading with him. I would say I have a [reputable] family. He said that if I did, I would not be on the streets at that hour looking like that. Even with the Islamic Republic’s standards, my appearance was appropriate.

He was of average height and looked very ordinary. He was about 35. He was driving a Pride. It was obvious he had not planned this ahead. When he realized Haghani Expressway was in front of him, he made this decision on an instant. He said very horrible things, but what he said showed that he was not an [experienced rapist].

He had placed his hand on my leg, and he said that if I screamed, he would insert his hand [into my vagina] up to his elbow. He would say that this should not matter to me [because] it was obvious that I was not a virgin. He said that I would either sexually gratify him or he would throw me out of his car right there in the middle of the expressway. When he said this, I thought that he had gone momentarily insane. I thought that I was finished. The more he drove further in the expressways, the more I got sacred.

A week before I had read a book about the mentality of rapists. I remembered that [it said] if one cooperates with them things would be easier for the victim. I said, “I would do anything for you, but please turn the window down [because] I am suffocating.” He had locked the windows. He said, “You would do anything I want?” “Yes,” I said. He asked me to gratify him [as he was driving]. I said, “Ok, but please let the window down [because] I am suffocating. I’d do anything you want, even more than that.”

[He unlocked the window]. I pushed the button to open the window. Then I got my hand out of the window and started to bang on the roof [of the car]. When he saw me doing this he got scared. He did not expect this because I had assured him that I would certainly do anything that he wanted. I got half of my body out of the car [through the open window]. Two or three [drivers on the expressway] saw this scene. For about 200 to 300 hundred meters one Peugeot 206 and another car turned on their turned signals. They honked and turned in front of [our] car. If he was an [experienced rapist] he would accelerate and drive though them. And in Iran people usually do not [pursue a car like that]. But since he was not experienced, he got scared. He slowed down, and I threw myself out of the car.

There was a car right in front of him, and another one was at his side. He accelerated and left. I was in a very bad state and I could not make note of his car plates. [The young man who was driving of the cars got off] and helped me. We were under a pedestrian bridge. That young man was in shock too. It was not something ordinary for him. He [at first] had thought that this was a domestic dispute. “For a second I said to myself that [maybe] there was a one percent chance that this was not a domestic dispute, and someone was really kidnapping you, [so] it was best to stop,” he said to me.

When I threw myself out my head hit the ground very hard. My arm was hurt. [The car] was near the curb [on the right-hand side]. I was maybe half a meter away from with the fence [on the side of the highway].

That young man turned on his emergency lights. He took me to the other side of the expressway over the pedestrian bridge. A supermarket was open there. I was in a daze. The young man called the last number on my cell phone, which was my boyfriend’s number. My boyfriend called my family members. My boyfriend got there first. My family arrived there next. The police came at the same time as my family.

Police Investigation

We were at the parking of the home of the supermarket’s owner when police came. [The police officer] would look at me and say, “Now, tell me the truth, what was going on?” It was obvious that he was not in the mood to write a report. [The police offer] asked, “Who are these people?” The young man said that he was a witness to what had happened. My brother said that he was my brother. [The officer asked my brother] who was that man? My brother said, “He’s her boyfriend.” Apparently [when he saw] that my brother knew that I had a boyfriend, he became certain that I was promiscuous, and my family were deviant! It was very obvious. He would say, “You know that we have cameras under Seyed Khandan Bridge?” “Are you sure this has happened?” he asked several times, so much so that the young man [who had witnesses what had happened] became angry and said that he had been there and had seen me throw myself out of the car. My head was wounded and was bleeding. [The police officer] also said, “Are you sure it wasn’t your boyfriend? You are that type of a girl!” My brother and my boyfriend were so angry, and they really controlled themselves so that they would not attack him. He was not doing or writing anything.

We insisted so much that he eventually wrote a report. He really did not want to write one. Then, using his walkie-talkie he asked for a police care. They took me with [the police car] to the police station so that I could file my complaint. We went to the Yousef Abad police station. We turned in our cell phones and entered the police station. My mother, my brother, my boyfriend, the witness, and I went in there. But I was the only one who went to see the detective. Later, the detective called for [the witness].

The detective asked me a series of questions. He had a scary look, and I could not speak at all. He asked me what time exactly the incident had happened. I mixed up the times. For example, one time I said 10:10, another time I said 10:30. I did not remember it exactly. The detective started yelling: “Are you taking us for fools?! We have dedicated several agents to this case. Answer me correctly!” It was not a room. It was like a cubicle with partitions. I started to cry. My mom came over there and said, “She is the victim. Why are you yelling at her?”

The detective said, “Victim? She doesn’t know what has happened! It’s not even clear what the hell your daughter was doing there at 10 o’clock at night looking like this!” He added, “I’m sure your daughter got into a dispute with that guy over the price.”

He said that they have so many cases of sex workers going to the police station after getting into a dispute over the price [of their services]. When he was explaining all this, my boyfriend got angry, came over there, and started shouting. My brother held him so that he would not attack [the detective]. [The police] detained my boyfriend because he was yelling. They handcuffed him and sat him down.

“Do you want me to take your daughter to be tested right now so that you can see that she is not a virgin?” I do not know much about Iran’s laws, and I was afraid that they could take me to jail for not being a virgin.

Detention

Then they looked into our cell phones. They inspected my cell phone, my brother’s and my boyfriend’s. My boyfriend is Jewish. I know a little bit of Hebrew. I wanted to learn it better. I texted my boyfriend in Hebrew. They used this as a pretext. They detained my boyfriend for two nights. One reason was that he had insulted them; the other was that they wanted his family to produce documents that showed that he did not have an Israeli passport. This was very stupid. I started to cry and insulted the [detective]. I said, “I am the victim. Why are you asking irrelevant questions? Instead of asking what has happened to me, why are you making it so complicated? What right did you have to inspect our cell phones?”

I had a lot of things on my phone that are, as they say, “counter-revolutionary.” Content that may be on anyone’s cell phone. They detained me for one night too. The charges on my case files was “some private and moral issues.” It was very vague and absurd.

What I realized was that they did not want to open rape investigations at all. It was clear that the detective did all he could so that we would not open a case there. What they were doing was planned. As soon as he understood that this was a sexual assault case, he started to turn it back at me.

They handcuffed me and kept me overnight. I was held at the section where female police officers worked. They had handcuffed me to a chair. My sister suggested that I contact a lawyer, but I said no. I believe that with the exception of financial cases, getting a lawyer is only a formality in Iran.

Court

They sent my case to court. On the next morning they took me to court in a van along with a number of other girls. I was not handcuffed in that van. There were forty or fifty people sitting in the courtroom. The judge would call each name. He would stamp each case file and say, “Go.” It appeared as if they [just] wanted to frighten [those who were there].

The blood on my face had dried up. When I sat in the courtroom, the judge asked, “Why is her face bloody?” “Go wash your face,” he told me. I washed my face. They took my picture too.

I did not have a conversation with the judge. They gave me a green A-5 sheet. On the sheet it said that I had been detained for one night for insulting a government agent and inappropriate content on my cell phone. It also said that I had not received a sentence.

My boyfriend was detained for two days. His family asked the police how they should prove that he does not have Israeli citizenship. Anyway, which Israeli citizen lives in Iran?! They [eventually] released my boyfriend too.