Description of an experience on the 22nd year of imprisonment; Letter from Saeed Masouri imprisoned in Rajai Shahr prison
11-January-2022
Category: Prisoners
9-January-2022
Newsgroup: Prisoners – Repression –
Breathing in Confinement: Saeed Masouri, a political prisoner imprisoned in Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj, wrote a letter in the 22nd year of his imprisonment in which he wrote about his experiences during these years. In this letter, Mr. Masouri refers to the prison’s impact on the prisoners and their aspirations. He states that the function of prison is to “make prisoners fed up with everything”.
Saeed Masouri is entering his 22nd year of imprisonment, during which he has been denied the right to furlough.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news organ of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Saeed Masouri, a political prisoner in Rajai Shahr Prison, wrote on the 22nd year of his imprisonment about the role of prison in distracting political prisoners from their “causes and aspirations.”
In his letter, he stated: “Determination and perseverance in prison means making choices in every moment, hour, and day, to be saved from being ruined. For those who do not have the courage to have ambitious ideals and causes, the limited and vicious walls turn into the graveyard of ideals and will, and this is where minimal benefits or losses grow into large and unsolvable conflicts and problems.”
Below is the full text of Mr. Masouri’s letter, a copy of which has been shared with the “Breathing in a Confinement” for publication:
“Description of an experience on the 22nd year of imprisonment:
In my 22nd year in prison, I remember the first days when I asked a prisoner in the next cell, ‘How long have you been in prison?’ Two months and three months seemed a very long time to me… I was pounding my fists on the door and rubbing my paws on the walls…. From the very first days, mimicking the movies, I used to count the days by scratching lines on the cell wall to keep track of the days. But now I can hardly even remember whether some events happened in the first 10 years or in the second 10 years? And now the third decade has begun… Now even in my dreams, I see nothing but prison… The memories before prison have completely vanished from my mind, and my most beautiful night dreams are nothing but having a better cell or a window with fewer railings, and things like that…
Yes, the first special function of prison is to cut off prisoners from reality; Keeping them confined within the walls and fed them up with everything! And this means immersing people in their restricted world, and illusions. And when human beings sink into themselves, their relationships also will be reduced to the same extent, and this is the beginning of the destruction of human character.
Determination and perseverance in prison means making choices in every moment, hour, and day, to be saved from being ruined. For those who do not have the courage to have ambitious ideals and causes, the limited and vicious walls turn into the graveyard of ideals and will, and this is where minimal benefits or losses grow into large and unsolvable conflicts and problems. This is the function of prison and there is no difference between ordinary prisoners and political prisoners. As the difference between them was ‘having or not having aspirations’. So, in the absence of causes and aspirations, their problems are the same.
At the beginning of our imprisonment, the reason for us being in prison was demanding freedom and justice for our people and struggling for their rights. As such, the main characteristic of political prisoners was ‘disregarding their personal interests’. And if prison get them away from their ideals, minimal issues and benefits will replace the great causes, and the prisoner can no longer consider the other prisoners as his fellow inmates. He sees them as rivals who seek to deprive him of his rights and the ones who do nothing but to harass him (a prison within prison).
It is an inherent function of prison which forces the prisoner to reduce to the level of petty issues… and when this reduction is mixed up with some personal negative and unacceptable traits, it turns into a complex problem which can only be detected and solved by those who choose to resist in each and every moment. A resistance that even a moment of neglecting it leads to irrecoverable damages and losses for the prisoner and those around him. Being fed up with everything is the product of turning away from causes and ideals and being captured in the existing miserable conditions. Whereas the glitter of humanity is only seen in the harsh conditions.
While our free nation (from the noble teachers, hardworking workers and farmers and all groups) have set aside their fears and personal interests, and are demanding their freedom and rights on the street, and while they are sacrificing thousands and thousands of their young children for freedom, not being in solidarity and unity with them is exactly to be trapped in the walls of prison.
In short, when personal issues and interests take over in prison, we must remember what we are getting away from and what we are getting in. ”
Saeed Masouri / January 2022 / Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj