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Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran | 
| Author: Ervand Abrahamian
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $24.95
New (11) Used (22) from $7.40
Rating:  4 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 284
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0520218663
Dewey Decimal Number: 365.64
EAN: 9780520218666
ASIN: 0520218663
Publication Date: June 16, 1999
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The role of torture in recent Iranian politics is the subject of Ervand Abrahamian's important and disturbing book. Although Iran officially banned torture in the early twentieth century, Abrahamian provides documentation of its use under the Shahs and of the widespread utilization of torture and public confession under the Islamic Republican governments. His study is based on an extensive body of material, including Amnesty International reports, prison literature, and victims' accounts that together give the book a chilling immediacy.
According to human rights organizations, Iran has been at the forefront of countries using systematic physical torture in recent years, especially for political prisoners. Is the government's goal to ensure social discipline? To obtain information? Neither seem likely, because torture is kept secret and victims are brutalized until something other than information is obtained: a public confession and ideological recantation. For the victim, whose honor, reputation, and self-respect are destroyed, the act is a form of suicide.
In Iran a subject's "voluntary confession" reaches a huge audience via television. The accessibility of television and use of videotape have made such confessions a primary propaganda tool, says Abrahamian, and because torture is hidden from the public, the victim's confession appears to be self-motivated, increasing its value to the authorities.
Abrahamian compares Iran's public recantations to campaigns in Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, and the religious inquisitions of early modern Europe, citing the eerie resemblance in format, language, and imagery. Designed to win the hearts and minds of the masses, such public confessions--now enhanced by technology--continue as a means to legitimize those in power and to demonize "the enemy."
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| Customer Reviews:
Important and thought provoking January 22, 2003
Richard B. Thompson (Murray, UT United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Speaking as one who has a limited knowledge of Iranian history, this book was informative. However, the focus is not really on the implications of the public recantations in Iran. The author spends much time recounting the history of the commonly jailed political parties and the conditions of their incarceration. There was not a much as I would have liked about the impact of the recantations on the public or the social implications of such recantations. Even a few personal interviews with some of the prominent personalities who recanted would have helped us to understand the gravity of the situation. Still the information is fascinating and the book is necessary if one is at all interested in Iran.
highly recommended March 29, 2002
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an excellent scholarship on a very important issue in Iran. I highly recommend the book.
Revealing, informative, yet incomplete January 30, 2001
Reza (Washington, D.C)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Ervand Abrahamian provides intriguing information on the state of politics and political prisoners dating from early 1920's until the 1988 executions under the Islamic Republic. He analyzes revealing prison literature and cases involving the families of inmates. Prison life and court cases were discussed in great detail under various regimes ending with the 1988 executions. However, the author neglected to mention the exacerbation of prison conditions and the ongoing trend of recantations in modern Iran under the Islamic Republic, which take place even today. Overall, the book was didactically written and I definitely recommend it for all who share the interest.
 A good book for the western scholars. May 31, 1999
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I read this book and it did not add anything to my knowledge about Khomeini's regime. As a person who has lived in that country and his dearest friends and families were killed under the torture or by firing squads this book was not really informative. 1. Its statistics about political prisoners who were executed is not accurate. For example in page 129 it talks about 12500 prisoners who were killed by the Iranian government. It says that 74 percent of them were executed but in page 130 talks about 7943 executed people, obviously 74 percent of the 12500 is not 7943. Iranian regime has killed thousands of political prisoners but the government does not publish the names only the names of 25000 of them were published by opposition groups so you can imagine that the real number should be over 100000. 2. Mr. Abrahamian does not really analyze the reason of the public recantations of some of the prisoners but the heroic resistance of others. What was the reason that some people were so strong and some people not as strong as they were? 3. He does not talk about Khomeini's religious decree to rape virgin girls before execution. 4.He does not talk about Khomeini's religious decree to take the blood of political prisoners before execution.But as a whole, this book has some information about Iran under the Islamic regime for Western scholars. You can read it and you will get a sense of what has gone to our generation. Aydin
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