Books - Let Us Water the Flowers: The Memoir of a Political Prisoner in Iran

In the summer of 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran began a systematic execution of political prisoners. Overriding earlier prison sentences handed down by its own tribunals, the regime summarily hanged thousands of inmates, many of them incarcerated at the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran. In great secrecy the bodies of the victims were transported to mass, unmarked graves.

For more than two decades, the Iranian government has tried to hide the existence of these gravesites, and as recently as January 2009 has attempted to destroy evidence of their whereabouts. According to Amnesty International, the cumulative death toll of this mass purging of political enemies, which continued until early 1989, ranges from 4,500 to 10,000.

Dr. Jafar Yaghoobi experienced the terrible ordeal of being a political prisoner in Iran between 1984 and 1989. Against all odds, he survived the wave of state-sponsored killings. Let Us Water the Flowers is his personal memoir of the events of that terrible time combined with testimonials of other prisoners who shared their experiences with the author. Dr. Yaghoobi describes the courage, resistance, sacrifice, camaraderie, and solidarity of prisoners who did not give up hope. Many refused to give in to the unrelenting pressures of the prison authorities, despite brutal interrogation, torture, and fear for their lives. But he also recounts the stories of other prisoners who broke down under pressure and collaborated in torturing, abusing, and controlling their fellow prisoners. To date this is the most detailed report in English of the Iranian prison system in the 1980s and the fate of the regime's opponents.

Including an introduction that explains the events of the 1980s within the larger context of twentieth-century Iranian history, an epilogue that movingly describes the traumatic effects of imprisonment on survivors and their families, a glossary, and a list of resources for further research, Let Us Water the Flowers is must reading for Americans trying to understand the complexities of Iranian politics and the nature of the current regime, many of whose leaders were involved in the events of the 1980's.

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