City of Lies (30 page)

Tehran’s population is from the University of Tehran website:
www.ut.ac.ir/en/contents/About-tehran/About.Tehran.html

The history of Vali Asr: Dariush Shabaazi,
Bargh-hayee az Tareekh-e Tehran
(Notes on the History of Tehran) (Saless, 2011), pp. 353–4. The destruction of trees on Vali Asr: World Cultural Heritage Voices, ‘Suspicious Removal of Trees on a Major Road of Tehran’, 24 July 2013.

Dariush’s story is mostly based on my interviews with an ex-MEK member, who has spoken publicly of his MEK mission to Tehran to kill a former Tehran police chief. I have also used details provided by two other former MEK members living in Tehran and merged them with this man’s story. Interviews with these former members also provided the details of the arrival in the country, family background, the MEK handler and the gun-runner. I have changed a few details of Dariush’s assassination attempt. Descriptions of MEK meetings in the US are from current MEK supporters based outside Iran.

Current MEK members and some activists accuse the man on whose story this is based of being a regime spy, even though he left Iran after the protests of 2009 and has been granted asylum in another country.

Members of the MEK claim that since 2001 the group no longer sends its members for missions to Iran; instead they are chosen from an existing network already in the country. Between 2008 and 2013, five Iranians, said to be nuclear scientists, were executed on the streets of Tehran by assassins on motorbikes. The Iranian government says it is the work of the MEK with support from Israel.

Camp Ashraf was stormed by Iraqi troops in 2011, killing at least thirty-six people. It has since been closed down and about 3,000 MEK members were relocated to Camp Liberty in north-eastern Baghdad. They have come under rocket attack several times; a leader of the Shia militia Mukhtar Army has admitted responsibility.

The MEK was on the US list of terrorist organizations until September 2012, when it was delisted. There is talk within the MEK of re-establishing its military wing with a powerful army, recruiting from around the world.

For the MEK see Ervand Abrahamian,
The Iranian Mojahedin
(Yale University Press, 1989), p. 1; on MEK weddings at Camp Ashraf, Masoud Banisadr,
Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel
(Saqi, 2004), p. 311. The MEK bomb in Haft-e Tir is from Moojan Momen,
An Introduction to Shi‘i Islam: The History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi‘ism
(Yale University Press, 1987), p. 295.

Somayeh’s story is based on that of a woman who wishes to remain anonymous; her relationship, from marriage to divorce, is as she explained it to me, including descriptions of her physical appearance and her dress. Conversations between Somayeh and her friends are conversations heard between girls of the same age group and from the same conservative families as Somayeh, or they are conversations recounted by Somayeh. Political conversations between the men were conversations I listened to in her area as well as conversations in a
mahzar
notary office shortly after Rouhani’s election victory. I also interviewed several women in their fifties from conservative families for a full picture of Somayeh’s mother, Fatemeh, and Fatemeh’s friends.

Somayeh is currently living with her parents and her daughter. She told me she does feel lust from time to time, but she fights it hard, the only way she knows how, with fasting and prayers. Suitors come for her, but her neighbours and family were all right about one thing: none of them have been prepared to accept Somayeh with her little girl. Somayeh has said another
nazr
prayer, asking for a good husband who will love her daughter. She believes God and Imam Zaman will come good, as they have always done. She believes she is in store for another miracle.

Number of satellite television receivers in Iran: Asr Iran news website, quoting Javad Arianmanesh, 24 November 2008. Mullah condemns 3G mobile Internet service: ISNA (Iranian Students’ News Agency), 10 February 2013. For social history after the revolution, see Ervand Abrahamian,
A History of Modern Iran
(Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 180. The cleric discussing virgins in paradise on television was quoted on the IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) 3,
Samteh
Khodah
(Towards God) programme. The Supreme Leader’s response to the question about masturbation is from his website, question number 786:
farsi.khamenei.ir/
. Dubbing actors arrested: ISNA, 18 December 2012. Number of marriages ending in divorce:
Etemaad
newspaper, 29 April 2013, p. 13.

Amir’s story is based on that of a man who wishes to remain anonymous. The real Amir is not a blogger; I changed his profession at his request. I interviewed bloggers and student activists for all the details in this chapter. For information on the judge in Amir’s story, I interviewed a former judge who was a judge in the Revolutionary Courts at the same time as the judge who approached Amir. All information on bribes, corruption and the incident of the stoning in Evin prison is as he described.

For details of Amir’s parents’ lives as dissidents, I interviewed several people of his parents’ generation who were active at that same time. All details of parties and dissident meetings come from them, or from Amir’s memory of his parents’ gatherings. The account of the man on military service crying as he witnessed executions is from a man who had witnessed them in Evin prison following the 2009 protests; he told me that all the guards watching had cried.

The judge’s son has also contacted Amir, asking him to forgive the old judge. The judge’s son told Amir that his father has tracked down nearly all the children of those he condemned to execution, begging for forgiveness. Amir is the only one not to have forgiven him, and is the only one who has never accepted his gifts and his money. Amir is also the only child both of whose parents were executed.

When in prison, the blogger Sattar Beheshti publicly complained of being tortured and details of his treatment were published on the opposition website kaleme.com. An article in the
New York Times
, ‘Jailed Blogger Not Tortured Before Death, Iran Says’ by Thomas Erdbrink, 12 November 2012, quotes ‘influential Iranian lawmaker’ Alaeddin Borujerdi denying that Beheshti was tortured to death.

For the imprisonment and execution of political opponents after the revolution see Ervand Abrahamian,
A History of Modern Iran
(Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 181; estimates of numbers eliminated by the Shah between 1971 and 1977, see Ervand Abrahamian,
Iran Between Two Revolutions
(Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 480; Khomeini’s slogans, Abrahamian,
A History of Modern Iran
, p. 148.

Ayatollah Hakim’s fatwa against joining the Communist Party, Baqer Moin,
Khomeini, Life of the Ayatollah
(IB Tauris, 1999), p. 144; the Ayatollah’s younger son releasing a pop video,
Bahar News
, 13 January 2013.

On the exclusion of Baha’is see ISNA, quoting politician Javad Larijani, 14 May 2011 and Human Rights Watch, ‘Barring the Bahais’ by Faraz Sanei, 11 May 2010.

The number of executions ordered by revolutionary courts between the revolution and June 1981 is from Abrahamian,
History of Modern Iran
, p. 181 (the exact number given of those executed is 497).

Khomeini’s secret order to execute all prisoners who remained opposed to the Islamic regime: Kaveh Shahrooz, ‘The Iran Tribunal’
www.irantribunal.com/index.php/news/articles/30-twenty-years-of-silence-the-1988-massacre-and-quest-for-accountability
. The account of the court proceedings: see Muhammad Sahimi, ‘The Bloody Red Summer of 1988’, 25 August 2009, PBS Frontline/Tehran Bureau
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ tehranbureau/2009/08/the-bloody-red-summer-of-1988.html
.

Bijan’s character and details of his family life are based on one man. Details of crimes and criminal operations are based on the testimonies of several men introduced to me by Bijan. For obvious reasons, all locations have been changed. Nearly all conversations in this chapter are as I heard them spoken between Bijan and his group of friends and local gangsters, apart from conversations with the police chief – to be clear, the police chief was never present. The figure of one million US dollars’ ransom money is from a friend of a friend who was kidnapped – this amount was paid by his family for his release.

On Iranians in Japan see Roger Goodman, Ceri Peach, Ayumi Takenaka, Paul White,
Global Japan: The Experience of Japan’s New Immigrant and Overseas Communities
(Routledge, 2009), pp. 12, 161.

On drugs: the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) report,
Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific, A Threat Assessment
, April 2013, p. 68, states that in 2010 the Islamic Republic of Iran ranked fourth in the world for licit pseudoephedrine imports (
www.unodc.org/documents/southeastasiaandpacific//Publications/2013/TOCTA_EAP_web.pdf
); Iran as fifth-highest consumer of crystal meth in the world, Tabnak news website, quoting Saeed Safaeeyan, 1 October 2013; champion wrestler tested positive for D-methamphetamine,
Donya-e Eqtesad
newspaper, article naming Alireza Gharibi, 23 June 2006. The figures for crystal meth labs in Tehran are from Hamshahri Online, quoting Morteza Tamadon, Tehran governor, 1 August 2013 (referring to 2012 and the first three months of 2013); popularity of
sheesheh
, Fars news agency, 5 March 2013 and Khabar Online, 5 February 2012; government claim to arrest thirty drug dealers and addicts every hour, Mehr news agency, 1 April 2013 and
Bahar
newspaper, 13 January 2013.

‘This is Tehran / A city that tempts you till it saps your soul / And makes you see you were always meant to be / Nothing more than dirt’, translated into English from ‘Ekhtelaf’ from the album ‘Jangale Asfalt’ (‘Asphalt Jungle’) by Iranian rapper Hichkas.

Special treatment for Basij students: Mehr news agency, 18 May 2010 and Hamshahri Online, 9 July 2008, article by Mina Shahni, quoting Reza Sahrai, Director of Higher Education, Martyrs’ Foundation.

Leyla’s character and details about her upbringing, family and work as a prostitute are based on one woman. Kayvan is a composite character based on several people.

The real Leyla is still, happily, alive. The story of Leyla’s death, however, is based on the real case of a woman who was executed for making a pornographic film. In 2001 a woman was stoned in Evin prison, charged with moral corruption. According to newspaper reports, the police had tracked her down using the serial number on her electricity meter, which was visible in the background of her porn film. The BBC quotes
Entekhab
newspaper on the woman stoned to death in Evin prison in 2001:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1343058.stm
. I changed Leyla’s death to hanging as, officially, nobody has been stoned to death in Tehran since 2001: Tabnak news website, 12 November 2012.

The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center estimates there are currently around 200–300 women facing the death penalty in Iran. Lawyers working there say it is not known how many have been charged with crimes related to moral corruption.

On prostitution: average age, Shafaf news website, 23 December 2009, article by Leda Ayaaz; camps for ‘reformation’, Mehr news agency, 10 July 2012 quoting Morteza Tamadon, Governor-General of Tehran province; Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s sermon: Robert Tait,
Guardian
, 4 June 2007,
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/04/iran.roberttait
.

Information on the cyberpolice is quoted from the cyberpolice website,
www.cyberpolice.ir
; crackdown on the Internet and Facebook pages: ISNA, quoting Kamal Hadianfar, 3 October 2013.

Report on Tehran’s police chief being caught in a brothel is from BBC news website, ‘Iran anti-vice chief “in brothel”’, 16 April 2008,
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7350165.stm
. Proposal for licensed brothels, Jim Muir, BBC, 28 July 2002,
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2156975.stm
.

Immoral women blamed for deterioration of society, earthquakes and the state of the economy: ISNA, quoting Tehran’s Friday Prayers leader, 17 April 2010. Parliament bill on porn: Sepah News Service, 3 September 2013.

Morteza’s story, of a member of the Basij having a sex-change operation, is based on the story of a colleague of a friend. However, as she was too scared to give much detail of her life, I have drawn on the experiences of three former members of the Basij and two transgender male-to-female Tehranis from conservative
basiji
families, all of whom I interviewed.

As she was from a religious family, the catalyst that really encouraged Morteza to embrace her transsexuality and act upon it was a fatwa given by Ayatollah Khomeini himself, condoning sex changes. In 1984, a hermaphrodite called Fereydoon sought counsel from Khomeini, describing his mental and emotional state and explaining he was a woman trapped in a man’s body. Fereydoon asked Khomeini for permission to change his sexuality; Khomeini agreed. A number of
mojtaheds
, high-ranking clerics who are able to issue fatwas, also accepted transsexuality, including the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Since then, thousands of gender-reassignment surgeries have taken place in Iran, but there have been many reports of botched operations. Dozens of male-to-female transsexuals have filed complaints of being left unable to have sex after surgery, their sexual organs having been butchered or built the wrong size (
www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/cescr/docs/ngos/JointHeartlandAlliance_IRQO_IHRC_Iran_CESCR50.pdf
). Even though the Iranian health service claims to have allocated a budget of 350,000,000 tomans for gender-reassignment surgery throughout the country (ISNA, 21 November 2012), operations are still expensive, costing at least 3,000 US dollars – nearly double someone like Morteza’s yearly family income. Several cases have been reported of gay men who have been forced into having sex-change operations by their families, as being transgender is more acceptable than being gay. Many people from the transgender community have spoken of daily abuse and persecution.

‘Shireen’ had her gender-reassignment surgery in Thailand. She is no longer in touch with her family as they have been unable to come to terms with who she is.

ISRAEL ANNOUNCES DATE IT WILL ATTACK IRAN
:
Khabar Eghtesadi
newspaper, khabareghtesadi.com, 9 May 2012; Imam Jomeh, Jiroft, 24 July 2013; Supreme Leader’s response: IRIB 1, Supreme Leader’s speech in Mashhad, 21 March 2013.

The references to the Ayatollah’s lectures are drawn from Rasa news website, based on the words of Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, 26 May 2012.