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<h1><font size=4><b>Tortured by Solitude<br>
</b></font></h1><h6><b>By SARAH SHOURD<br>
Published: November 5, 2011
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/in-an-iranian-prison-tortured-by-solitude.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/in-an-iranian-prison-tortured-by-solitude.html<br>
<br>
</a>AT 5:15 p.m. I found myself pacing compulsively back and forth across
my 10-foot-by-14-foot cell in Iran’s Evin prison, muttering reassurances
to myself and kneading my nervous hands together into one fat fist.
“Don’t worry,” I told myself, “this is probably your last day alone, they
can’t just let you go crazy in here.” <br><br>
It was 2009 and the beginning of winter. I had been in prison in Iran
along with my fiancé, Shane Bauer, and our friend Josh Fattal since the
summer, when we were arrested and charged with espionage after hiking
somewhere near the country’s unmarked border with Iraqi Kurdistan. For
the last three months, I had been in solitary confinement 24 hours a day.
Only after going on a hunger strike for five days was I allowed to visit
Shane and Josh for a few minutes at a time, all of us blindfolded in a
padded interrogation room. The day before, one of my interrogators had
told me that we would now be allowed daily half-hour visits in an
open-air cell. As the hour for our visit approached, I began pacing my
room frantically, terrified that the promise had just been a ploy and
that the guards wouldn’t be coming. By 6:15, I was sweating and tears
were streaming down my face. <br><br>
It’s impossible to exaggerate how much the company of another human being
means when you’ve been cut off from the world and stripped of your rights
and freedom. <br><br>
After two months with next to no human contact, my mind began to slip.
Some days, I heard phantom footsteps coming down the hall. I spent large
portions of my days crouched down on all fours by a small slit in the
door, listening. In the periphery of my vision, I began to see flashing
lights, only to jerk my head around to find that nothing was there. More
than once, I beat at the walls until my knuckles bled and cried myself
into a state of exhaustion. At one point, I heard someone screaming, and
it wasn’t until I felt the hands of one of the friendlier guards on my
face, trying to revive me, that I realized the screams were my own.
<br><br>
Of the 14 and a half months, or 9,840 hours, I was held as a political
hostage at Evin prison in Tehran, I spent 9,495 of them in solitary
confinement. When I was released just over a year ago, I was shocked to
find out that the United Nations
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html">
Convention Against Torture</a>, one of the few conventions the United
States has ratified, does not mention solitary confinement. I learned
that there are untold numbers of prisoners around the world in solitary,
including an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 in the United States. According
to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, the
practice appears to be “growing and diversifying in its use and
severity.” <br><br>
Amy Fettig at the American Civil Liberties Union told me: “In the U.S. we
use solitary as a routine prison administrative practice. It’s not
something that’s used as a last recourse, as it should be.” Last summer,
prisoners at Pelican Bay prison in California went on a hunger strike to
end the practice of isolating some prisoners for more than 22 hours a
day. The strike spread until thousands of prisoners were participating.
Only when officials agreed to review the use of solitary confinement did
the
prisoners<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/opinion/sunday/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/10/prison-hunger-strike-ends.html">
accept food</a>. <br><br>
Such a review is needed for prisons everywhere, and particularly in the
United States, the country with, according to Ms. Fettig, the most
prisoners in solitary confinement in the world. One of the problems,
according to Mr. Méndez, is that there is no universally accepted
definition of solitary confinement. Mr. Méndez and his staff defined it
as “more than 22 to 24 hours isolated from anyone else except for
guards.” They are calling for clearer standards regarding “what is
disciplinary and what moves into the category of ‘severe pain and
suffering, either physical or mental,’ which is definitely prohibited
under international law.” He has called for a ban on prolonged solitary
confinement, and I very much agree. Any case that lasts more than 15 days
should be carefully investigated. <br><br>
You don’t have to beat someone to inflict pain and suffering; the
psychological torture of prolonged solitary confinement leaves no marks,
but its effects are severe and long-lasting. Fortunately, the guards did
come that winter day. Once I began to have short daily visits with Shane
and Josh, my mental health improved, but only marginally. At that point I
was sunk so deep inside myself that there were days when I was brought
out to visit them and couldn’t communicate or even look them in the eyes.
After prison, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I
still pace and wring my hands when I am nervous; I still have nightmares
and trouble sleeping. I stopped going to a certain exercise class because
the texture of the ceiling reminded me of the ceiling in my cell.
<br><br>
Though what the government of Iran did to us was sickening and flagrantly
unjust, I consider us lucky. We never felt forgotten; we knew that our
families, friends and supporters would not give up fighting for us. And
since I was released last year, and Shane and Josh were freed in
September, we have gotten more sympathy than most wrongfully detained
prisoners receive in a lifetime. <br><br>
It’s wonderful to begin my life again, and every day I feel more free,
but I can’t help thinking about the thousands of others who are alone
right now. I believe the excessive use of solitary confinement
constitutes cruel and unusual punishment that it is torture. The United
Nations should proscribe this inhumane practice, and the United States
should take the lead role in its eradication. <br><br>
Sarah Shourd is a writer who was imprisoned in Iran from July 2009 to
September 2010. <br><br>
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