Grisly truth of Iran’s torture prisons revealed in new museum recreating brutal techniques with dummies
The gruesome displays reveal the horrors suffered by prisoners of the brutal security service SAVAK
THE harrowing realities of Iran's torture prisons have been revealed in a new museum that uses dummies to recreate brutal interrogation techniques.
The grisly displays reveal the horrors suffered by prisoners of the brutal security service SAVAK, which tortured and killed thousands of the Shah's opponents before the 1979 revolution.
SAVAK, created with the assistance of the CIA, had as many as 60,000 agents in its ranks and some 8,500 prisoners passed through its "House of Detention".
Many of the dummies are trapped in solitary confinement in dark cells showing the marks of extreme violence.
Other more gruesome displays show mutilated prisoners hanging from bars, strung up above the floor or tied to iron bed frames.
One particularly disturbing scene shows a man trapped into a so-called "hot cage", which would be heated from below to intolerable temperatures.
Built in 1932 under Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi the prison was constructed of non-geometric walls around a large central courtyard, in a bid to disorient prisoners.
It has since been transformed into the Ebrat Museum, which educates visitors about the building's use as a pre-trial detention centre under the country's last Shah Mohammed Reza.
Suspected dissidents could spend anything from a few months to a couple of years awaiting trial at the centre.
Former prisoners include Iranian president Rafsanjani and the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
In a video Khamenei talks about his time there, focusing mainly on how he would wait each day for the brief shaft of light that would strike his cell wall and his fascination with the sound of birds.
Torturers and interrogators in the scenes wear "decadent" western ties, while female inmates have not been provided with hijabs.
The ruthless SAVAK have been named as one of the root causes of the discontent that lead to the 1979 revolution.
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