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Prison Letters
A collection of letters sent and received by the imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh.
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Published January 1, 2023
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February 14, 2023
Nasrin Sotoudeh is an attorney and human rights activist who was imprisoned twice in her home country of Iran for doing her job of defending clients: The first time, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison (reduced to 6 years on appeal), serving 3 years before being released; the second conviction led to a 38.5-year sentence (reduced to 27 years, with no appeal on the part of Sotoudeh, who is now on medical leave, having served 3.5 years of her long sentence). This book is based on letters she wrote from prison to family members and, occasionally, to government officials, human-rights supporters, and others. It also includes many letters written to her while she was in prison.
Iran's Islamic regime oppresses not only women but also religious minorities (even Sunni Muslims), ethnic minorities, gender-nonconforming individuals, musicians, communists, and any other group that does not fit in its extremely narrow world view. Sotoudeh's sins include defending clients from some of these groups. Writing the letters was Sotoudeh's way of avoiding indifference and being drained of love, for her children, her supportive husband, and humanity.
Some of the letters were written on napkins and smuggled out of the prison. Others were written on available pieces of paper and sent out through official channels, after inspection, occasionally being returned as unacceptable. The latter kind tend to be repetitive and dull, given restrictions on the topics that could be addressed. Sotoudeh writes that she has tried to reconstruct, to the extent that her memory permitted, a few letters that were lost during an inter-prison transfer.
In letters addressed to her children, Sotoudeh expresses appreciation for their understanding and writes of the fear that they would think she did something to deserve her imprisonment, which would make her an inconsiderate mother for separating herself from her children and affecting how their classmates viewed them. She indicates that her defense of abused children in court was motivated by her love for her own son & daughter and that she hopes all children would benefit from her efforts.
In letters addressed to her husband Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh expresses much love and affection, sentiments that are reciprocated in his letters. Some of the letters contain lists of items that she needs. Others discuss strategies for releasing information (timing, tone of communication). For example, there is some back-and-forth about how to accept an international honor and whether or not she should dedicate the award to a person or group she cared about. The possibility of Reza being arrested and their children having neither parent around to take care of them weighs heavily on the couple's decisions to keep silent, rather than speak up in some cases, although Khandan did get arrested, and he served time.
As I write this review, I have a hard time imagining a mother's mindset, while she sits in a prison cell, trying to remain emotionally connected to her loved ones, occupied with what she can make for her child's upcoming birthday, and determined to avoid being consumed with hate for her tormenters.
I end my review with this short passage in a letter from Sotoudeh to her husband Reza, written on Friday, November 9, 2018: "I miss our family's Fridays together. We would wake up late and have fried eggs, tea, and bread & cheese for breakfast. Do you remember there were four kinds of cheese on the table and we each had a different kind? Do you still eat the 'Laughing Cow' cheese? How are your games? I miss you, your cheeses, and your games, a lot …"
[This book is available on-line for free, to read or download: https://www.aasoo.org/fa/books/4166]
Iran's Islamic regime oppresses not only women but also religious minorities (even Sunni Muslims), ethnic minorities, gender-nonconforming individuals, musicians, communists, and any other group that does not fit in its extremely narrow world view. Sotoudeh's sins include defending clients from some of these groups. Writing the letters was Sotoudeh's way of avoiding indifference and being drained of love, for her children, her supportive husband, and humanity.
Some of the letters were written on napkins and smuggled out of the prison. Others were written on available pieces of paper and sent out through official channels, after inspection, occasionally being returned as unacceptable. The latter kind tend to be repetitive and dull, given restrictions on the topics that could be addressed. Sotoudeh writes that she has tried to reconstruct, to the extent that her memory permitted, a few letters that were lost during an inter-prison transfer.
In letters addressed to her children, Sotoudeh expresses appreciation for their understanding and writes of the fear that they would think she did something to deserve her imprisonment, which would make her an inconsiderate mother for separating herself from her children and affecting how their classmates viewed them. She indicates that her defense of abused children in court was motivated by her love for her own son & daughter and that she hopes all children would benefit from her efforts.
In letters addressed to her husband Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh expresses much love and affection, sentiments that are reciprocated in his letters. Some of the letters contain lists of items that she needs. Others discuss strategies for releasing information (timing, tone of communication). For example, there is some back-and-forth about how to accept an international honor and whether or not she should dedicate the award to a person or group she cared about. The possibility of Reza being arrested and their children having neither parent around to take care of them weighs heavily on the couple's decisions to keep silent, rather than speak up in some cases, although Khandan did get arrested, and he served time.
As I write this review, I have a hard time imagining a mother's mindset, while she sits in a prison cell, trying to remain emotionally connected to her loved ones, occupied with what she can make for her child's upcoming birthday, and determined to avoid being consumed with hate for her tormenters.
I end my review with this short passage in a letter from Sotoudeh to her husband Reza, written on Friday, November 9, 2018: "I miss our family's Fridays together. We would wake up late and have fried eggs, tea, and bread & cheese for breakfast. Do you remember there were four kinds of cheese on the table and we each had a different kind? Do you still eat the 'Laughing Cow' cheese? How are your games? I miss you, your cheeses, and your games, a lot …"
[This book is available on-line for free, to read or download: https://www.aasoo.org/fa/books/4166]
Displaying 1 of 1 review