An extract from Then They Came For Me
Read an extract from Then They Came For Me, a story of injustice and survival in Iran’s most notorious prison, out this month via One World Publications.
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Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran’s contested presidential elections for Newsweek magazine. He thought he’d be returning in just a few days to Paola, his pregnant fiancée. Instead, he was incarcerated under false charges of espionage in Evin, a state prison notorious for its role in Iran’s history of torture and oppression. His release came four months later, only after a global campaign supported by Hillary Clinton.
Suffering regular beatings, forced confessions, and threats of execution, Bahari draws strength from the similar experiences of his family in the past: his father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and his sister by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. He dreams of being with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and his resilient eighty-four-year-old mother must being doing to fight for his freedom.
Exposing the contradictions at the heart of Ahmadinejad’s paranoid regime, this moving memoir is also a beautifully written portrait of modern Iran that carries a vital and troubling message as other countries in the region strive for democracy.
