Witness Statement of Farkhondeh
Name: Farkhondeh*
Place of Birth: Iran
Date of Birth: 1951
Occupation: Home maker
Interviewing Organization: Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC)
Date of Interview: February 9, 2011
Interviewer: IHRDC Staff
This statement was prepared pursuant to an interview with Farkhondeh. It was approved by Farkhondeh on February 9, 2011. There are four 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.
* A pseudonym has been used to protect the identity of the witness.
Statement
1. My son was a teacher and taught in Baneh until a year after the revolution. That was when he was arrested in the streets and taken to prison. He was in prison for ten days. This was during the summer and I was in Sanandaj. My son’s friends informed me that he was arrested and I went to Baneh along with my daughter. We were not granted visitations but told that he will be released soon. Of course, this was a lie because he was executed the next day. All of the people of Baneh came to the prison and staged a protest so that the authorities would hand us his body. Eventually, they handed us his corpse but told us to pay for the bullets he was shot with. We took the body to Baneh’s mosque to be washed in preparation for burial. It was clear that he had been tortured as his arms were broken and his eye was gouged out. We took the body to Sanandaj and buried it in Behesht-e Mohammadi cemetery.
2. Five years later, I went to the mountains to visit with my daughter. When I returned I brought back her one-year-old child with me. I was arrested at the entrance of the city of Sardasht. Along with my grandchild, I was taken to Orumiyeh and thrown in prison. I was in one tiny cell with my grandchild for three months. They told me that my one-year-old grandchild was an anti-revolutionary. There was no equipment in the cell and the only thing we were given was rice and a pitcher of water daily. While in prison, both my intestines and that of my grandchild got infected.
3. After three months, I was blindfolded and taken along with my grandchild to a far off place in the wilderness and dumped there. I had no money and was only given a black chador when I was dumped in the wilderness. When I was arrested they confiscated my birth certificate. It was never given back to me. A few good Samaritans saw me in the wilderness and kindly took me to Saqqez and then to Sanandaj.
4. After this ordeal, I was summoned a few times by the intelligence office to go for interrogation. They also came to our house a few times. They told my husband and I that we surely must be active against the regime otherwise, how come there were so many pairs of shoes at our door while allegedly only two people—my husband and I—lived at our house?
