On September 15th, Mehr News published a piece highlighting a speech given by Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi during a recent press conference. Dolatabadi announced that Iran has granted furloughs to 20 political prisoners. Their names were not announced, so the prisoners would be able to spend their leave without any problems, “but only if they act according to the furlough rules.”
Dolatabadi also stated that an inmate [in ward 350] who was allowed a recent prison visit attempted to give his visitor his diary that he had packed in a bottle of milk, but prison guards caught the act. He added, “Prison is not a place for issuing statements or exchanging information.” He finished by asking, “We do not say that writing memoirs is impermissible, but is prison a place for exchanging information?” Since this incident, based on orders by the Tehran Prosecutor, restrictions on political prisoners in ward 350 dramatically increased.
The Kaleme website revealed last week that the diary referenced by Dolatabadi belongs to Iranian starred student Majid Dori, who was arrested after the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election. The post also included a letter Majid Dori wrote to the Tehran Prosecutor explaining the reasons he decided to keep a diary that he tried to sneak out of prison.
Despite the new restrictions imposed on political prisoners in jail, the letter was able to leave Evin prison with the help of anonymous sources. The complete content of the letter written by Majid Dori to Tehran’s Prosecutor Jafari Dolatabadi is as follows:
By Majid Dori | Translation Banooye Sabz
To the Honorable Attorney General,
With greetings,
Two weeks ago at a press conference you made reference to the fact that you intended to provide prisoners temporary prison leaves and reinstate visitation rights with their families, but then one of the prisoners tried to smuggle his 100-page diary out of prison by hiding it in a milk bottle. Since the diary you made reference to belongs to me, I would like to bring the following points to your attention:
1. The last time I was allowed to meet with my family in person was six months ago. In the past few months I have only been allowed to meet with them from behind a booth. Interestingly enough, you have restricted physical visitations to only one family member at a time. Is it fair to ban even direct family members in-person visits with their loved ones? Is it fair that a father, mother, sister, brother, spouse, or child should only be allowed to visit individually on a monthly basis and from behind a glass wall? I have been in jail for 15 months without a temporary leave of absence and I face an unjust sentence.
Is banning all telephone contact, depriving prisoners from hearing the voices of their friends and loved ones, restricting their physical visitation rights and depriving them of temporary leave of absence not considered putting pressure on political prisoners?
2. The only way I knew how to confront the ever increasing pressures and restrictions in prison was to write in a diary. I recorded my personal daily experiences, and since I wanted to avoid any violation to my privacy, I decided to transfer my diary out of prison.
Anything written in prison with the intent to be transferred out is searched, and I was not permitted a physical visit with my family for six months to give my diary to them. Thus, I hid it to ensure that my thoughts would remain private and that it would remain closed and unread.
3. I tightly sealed the diary with tape and wrote a note on the cover addressed to the person who was to have it transferred out of prison. I wrote that the diary is only allowed to be opened by me when it is returned to me. It was so personal to the extent that I did not want anyone other than myself to read the content. This clearly demonstrates that I never had the intention to publish any of the diary’s content. There was nothing in it but personal memories and experiences of my days in prison. The content was only my business.
Since you have indicated that writing a personal journal is not a crime, I ask that you order for this diary, that includes my personal memories, be returned to me. I ask that you please respect and honor the privacy of individuals.
Majid Dori
Evin Prison Ward 350
September 2010
– Maryam Nayeb Yazdi
