Iran Document: Detained Filmmaker Nourizad to Head of Judiciary on Abuse and Human Rights

Journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad has been detained since 20 November 2009, in part because of letters he wrote to the Supreme Leader. In April he was reportedly sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison. Last week this open letter was posted on his website: 

To Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, 
The honourable head of Islamic Republic's Judiciary

With greetings,

A while ago, during a speech, you indirectly criticized the British police's harsh treatment of students protesting the increase in university tuition, saying that "in a country that claims to respect human rights, the legitimate request of a group of young students is treated harshly and their basic rights are violated".

This remark of yours, even though it starts correctly, ends irrelevantly. The British Government, while it claims to respect human rights, has never claimed to be abiding by God, the Qur'an, the Prophet and holy Imams. In our Islamic country, some events happen that you don't understand unless you are part of them. I wonder if anyone has ever dunked the head of your loved ones in a toilet bowl [a reference to one of the tortures in Iran's prisons]. If someone had, and you and your loved one had tasted the inevitable struggle to breathe and hence take in what is in the toilet bowl, you would have turned a little bit of your "Ayatollah-ness" toward this side of judiciary in your own country.

But why have they dunked our heads in the toilet bowl of our solitary confinement cells? To get forced confessions, to cross out the just reason behind our protest, and to reinforce the shaky bases of the ruling power.

I suggest you that any time that, in front of the mirror as you comb your hair and put on cologne, you think of the heads of your country's political prisoners that have been dunked in the toilet bowls of their cells. I don't know if anyone has ever repeatedly slapped you on the face? Or has hit you in your chest or back with shoe? Or has kicked you in your face with foot? Or has spit between your eyebrows and your eyes?

I confidently say that if you had slightly believed the savagery of our intelligence forces, you would set aside objecting to British police. I don't know if ever someone, in the middle of your being helpless and under rains of blows and kicks, has outrageously insulted your wife? Or has called your pure daughter a prostitute? Or has tainted your mother, sister or your other chaste family members with sexual comments? I don't think so, but some of the personnel of the ministry of intelligence, who are wearing the mask of soldiers of Imam Mahdi [the last Imam of Shi'a], did this to us.

I suggest you, if you have not read the revealing letter of Hamzeh Karami and the heartfelt letter of Abdollah Momeni [both Karami and Momeni have been detained and written about their abuse], read the letter of Hojatoleslam Dr. Montazer Ghaem to the Supreme Leader to know that, inside the hollow judiciary of yours and ours, with what means and words the personnel of the Ministry of Intelligence define the clothing of the prophet and pay their dues to Muslims and the families of martyrs, and how they understand human dignity..

I suggest that from now on, whenever you decide to talk about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Prisons and the harsh treatment of British police --- so that in the shadow of this mockery hide your recent crimes --- you have a look in the mirror and have a look at the faces of your wife, daughters, mother and sisters to know that throwing a weak remark to the other side of our borders can never fix the shaky bases of our government.

I, Mohammad Nourizad, your prisoner at Evin Prison, hereby object not to the savage behavior of a group of ministry of intelligence personnel but to the stealing of the name of soldiers of Imam Mahdi by them, and I have a complaint. They have beaten me up. They have insulted my family. I have recorded all these in the context of my answers to the ridiculous questions of my interrogators. If you have the slightest fairness in your stature of Ayatollah, investigate my complaint and the complaints of the silent victims of the Ministry of Intelligence.

At the end, I remind you that the reason Imam Ali [the first Imam of Shi'a] became so upset over the theft of the jewelry of a Jewish lady] was nothing other than that he saw it as if evildoers had stolen jewels from the feet of his own family. Whenever you believe the crimes that have been imposed on these people, you will definitely react like Ali.

With respects, 

Mohammad Nourizad