Last week, our families published information that has been gnawing away at us for many months: my brother Josh and his friend Shane Bauer have been beaten while in Evin Prison in Iran and feared that they would be executed shortly after their arrest nearly 23 months ago. Shane and Josh have endured long stretches of solitary confinement, no access to their lawyer, and almost no contact with their families during their 682 days in jail. As if all that were not punishment enough for crimes they never committed, they world now knows that Shane and Josh have suffered physical abuse and psychological torture as well.
Sarah Shourd, Shane’s fiancée and Josh’s close friend, shared the details of this abuse with our families some time after she was released from 410 days of solitary confinement on payment of $500,000 bail last September. For a long time, I had buried this troubling knowledge away in a place where I would not have to think about it. But sharing it with the world has forced me to try to imagine what it must be like for Shane and Josh in their darkness and isolation. It feels like a kick in the chest. To imagine Josh being forced down a flight of stairs, to imagine him shaking in fear for his life, and to imagine Shane being slammed repeatedly against the wall…
