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White torture, often referred to as white room torture, is a type of psychological torture [1] [2] technique aimed at complete sensory deprivation and isolation. A prisoner is held in a cell that deprives them of all senses and identity. [2] [3] [4] It is particularly used in Iran; however, there is also evidence of its use by Venezuelan and United States intelligence services. [5] [6]
Visually, the prisoner is deprived of all colour. [2] Their cell is completely white: the walls, floor and ceiling, as well as their clothes and food. [7] [ better source needed ] Neon tubes are positioned above the occupant in such a way that no shadows appear. [7]
Auditorily, the cell is soundproof, and void of any sound, voices or social interaction. [7] Guards stand in silence, wearing padded shoes to avoid making any noise. [1] Prisoners cannot hear anything but themselves. [8]
In terms of taste and smell, the prisoner is fed white food—classically, unseasoned rice—to deprive them of these senses. Further, all surfaces are smooth, robbing them of the variability of touch sensations. [7]
Detainees are often held for months, or even years. [7] The effects of white torture are well-documented in a number of testimonials. [7] Typically, prisoners will become depersonalized by losing personal identity for extended periods of isolation. Other effects can include hallucinations or psychosis. [7] [9] [10]
In Iran, white torture (Persian : شكنجه سفيد) has been practiced on political prisoners by the Islamic republic regime. [11] Most political prisoners who experience this type of torture are journalists [12] held in the Evin prison. [13] "Amir Fakhravar, the Iranian white room prisoner, was tortured [at Evin prison] for 8 months in 2004. He still has horrors about his times in the white room." [8] According to Hadi Ghaemi, such tortures in Evin are not necessarily authorized directly by the Iranian government. [14]
It can include prolonged periods of solitary confinement, the use of continual illumination to deprive sleep (listed in the Geneva Convention on Basic Human Rights, 1949) often in detention centers outside the control of the prison authorities, including Section 209 of Evin Prison.
Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special human rights reporter in Iran, mentioned in a statement that human rights activist Vahid Asghari was psychologically tortured by means of long-term detention in solitary confinement and with threats to arrest, torture or rape his family members. He was also reportedly tortured with severe beatings for the purpose of eliciting confessions. [15] [16]
A 2004 Amnesty International report [3] documented the use of white torture on Amir Fakhravar by the Revolutionary Guards, the first known example of white torture in Iran. [17] It states that "his cells had no windows, and the walls and his clothes were white. His meals consisted of white rice on white plates. To use the toilet, he had to put a white piece of paper under the door. He was forbidden to speak, and the guards reportedly wore shoes that muffled sound". [18] [19] [20] Upon his arrival in the US, Fakhravar confirmed this report in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network.[ citation needed ]
In a telephone call to the Human Rights Watch in 2004, the Iranian journalist Ebrahim Nabavi said:
Since I left Evin, I have not been able to sleep without sleeping pills. It is terrible. The loneliness never leaves you, long after you are 'free.' Every door that is closed on you.... This is why we call it 'white torture.' They get what they want without having to hit you. They know enough about you to control the information that you get: they can make you believe that the president has resigned, that they have your wife, that someone you trust has told them lies about you. You begin to break. And once you break, they have control. And then you begin to confess. [21]
Kianush Sanjari, an Iranian blogger and activist who was tortured in 2006, reported:
I feel that solitary confinement—which wages war on the soul and mind of a person—can be the most inhuman form of white torture for people like me, who are arrested solely for (defending) citizens' rights. I only hope the day comes when no one is put in solitary confinement [to punish them] for the peaceful expression of his ideas. [22]
On December 20, 2018, Human Rights Watch urged the regime in Iran to investigate and find an explanation for the death of Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, who had been jailed for insulting the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to his family, Nasiri had been on a hunger strike but was denied medical attention before he died. [23]
The United States has been accused by Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations of using "extreme isolation and sensory deprivation... detainees confined to windowless cells... days without seeing daylight" along with other torture techniques with the approval of the George W. Bush administration [24] [25] under the euphemism "enhanced interrogation". [26] The organization of European Democratic Lawyers (EDL) has explicitly accused the United States of white torture: "Fundamental rights are violated on the part of the United States. In Guantánamo, prisoners are held under sensory deprivation, ears and eyes covered, hands and feet tied, hands in thick gloves, held in cages without any privacy, always observed, light day and night: This is called white torture." [6] Rainer Mausfeld has criticized the practice. [27]
According to human rights organizations and other NGOs, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) of the Venezuelan government holds political prisoners in the lower levels of SEBIN's headquarters, which has been deemed by government officials "The Tomb". [28] [5] [29] [30] [31] The cells are two by three meters (6 ft 7 in by 9 ft 10 in) with a cement bed, white walls, and security barriers between one another so that there is no interaction between prisoners. [5] Such conditions have caused prisoners to become very ill, but they are denied medical treatment. [31] Bright lights in the cells are kept on so prisoners lose their sense of time and the temperature is below freezing, with the only sounds heard being from the nearby Caracas Metro trains. [28] [5] Reports of torture in La Tumba, specifically white torture, are also common, with some prisoners attempting to commit suicide. [5] [29] [30] Such conditions according to the NGO Justice and Process are to make prisoners plead guilty to the crimes that they are accused of. [5]
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to discipline or separate incarcerated individuals who are considered to be security risks to other incarcerated individuals or prison staff, as well as those who violate facility rules or are deemed disruptive. However, it can also be used as protective custody for incarcerated individuals whose safety is threatened by other prisoners. This is employed to separate them from the general prison population and prevent injury or death.
Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Iranian Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the number of students and intellectuals housed there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.
Hooding is the placing of a hood over the entire head of a prisoner. Hooding is widely considered to be a form of torture; one legal scholar considers the hooding of prisoners to be a violation of international law, specifically the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, which demand that persons under custody or physical control of enemy forces be treated humanely. Hooding can be dangerous to a prisoner's health and safety. It is considered to be an act of torture when its primary purpose is sensory deprivation during interrogation; it causes "disorientation, isolation, and dread." According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, hooding is used to prevent a person from seeing, to disorient them, to make them anxious, to preserve their torturer's anonymity, and to prevent the person from breathing freely.
This article describes the use of torture since the adoption of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which prohibited it. Torture is prohibited by international law and is illegal in most countries. However, it is still used by many governments.
Abdolfattah Soltani is an Iranian human rights lawyer and spokesman for the Defenders of Human Rights Center. He co-founded the group with Mohammad Seifzadeh and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi. Along with Ebadi, Soltani served as a lawyer for the family of slain Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was allegedly tortured and murdered in Evin Prison in July 2003. Ebadi and Soltani, along with others, also represented jailed journalist Akbar Ganji during his imprisonment and long hunger strike. Soltani, who won the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, in 2009, served time in prison in 2005 and 2009, and was sentenced to 18-year prison sentence in 2012.
Gohardasht Prison is a prison in Gohardasht, a town in the northern outskirt of Karaj, approximately 20 km west of Tehran.
Kianush Sanjari, is an Iranian journalist and activist. He has a history of being arrested, imprisoned, and imprisoned in solitary confinement several times in Iran.
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Sarah Shourd is an American journalist, author and playwright. She is known for being an advocate against the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons. In 2009-10 she was held as a political hostage in Iran's Evin Prison for 410 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently coauthored a book about the experience with her fellow hostages Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer. On Sept 14, 2010, the Iranian government released Shourd to the care of the Omani government. Shourd did her Bachelors of Arts in 2001 from University of Berkeley. She was also a UC Berkeley Visiting Scholar in 2014.
Kouhyar Goudarzi is an Iranian human rights activist, journalist and blogger who was imprisoned several times by the government of Iran. He previously served as an editor of Radio Zamane. He is a member of Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR), serving as the head from 2005-2009.
Vahid Asghari, is an Iranian political prisoner, advocate for freedom of expression and a women’s rights activist. He was detained by a group of Islamic Republic Guards Corps (IRGC) commandos on May 8, 2008, on his way to the Imam Khomeini International Airport, because of his human rights activities and held in solitary confinement for two years without trial. He was sentenced to death twice by the chairman of the 15th Chamber of the Islamic Revolutionary Court, Judge Abolqassem Salavati, in 2011 and 2012, without participating in the court proceedings and without the freedom to choose his own lawyer. International human rights organizations are following Asghari’s case as he remains in custody.
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