Jafar Panahi’s Astonishing Account of the Israeli Attack on Evin Prison: Security Ward Prisoners, When Walls Collapsed, Pulled Their Jailers from Under the Rubble Instead of Fleeing

According to CinamaDrame News Agency, Jafar Panahi, the renowned Iranian director, wrote an astonishing account of the Israeli attack on Evin Prison:

“Perhaps it will be a scene from Iranian cinema in the future. In the report provided by Abolfazl Ghadiani and Mehdi Mahmoudian regarding the bombing of Evin Prison, a scene is narrated that is rarely encountered in the history of the world, a wondrous moment where the boundary between captivity and freedom, power and honor, is redefined.

Their narrative states: ‘Near noon on Monday, Evin Prison shook with the sound of several successive explosions. Two or three explosions occurred near Ward 4, and when the prisoners came out of the ward’s door, they saw that the infirmary, a few meters away, was burning, and the prison’s food and hygiene supply warehouse was destroyed. Some prisoners entered the infirmary to help the injured and pulled out a number of dead and wounded.

Simultaneously, the prison’s security ward—which housed dozens of prisoners in its terrifying solitary cells—was damaged. Doors opened, and prisoners and security officers emerged from the ward with terrified faces. Until about 2 PM, while the number of prison guards and security forces was small, the bodies of about 15 to 20 staff members from the infirmary, prisoners, warehouse workers, and officers from Ward 209 were pulled from under the rubble by the prisoners themselves.’

In this terrifying and dangerous moment, what would seem natural for the prisoners was to escape the clutches of tyranny; but what happened speaks entirely of sacrifice. In such a chaotic moment, it is natural to think of escape. But the prisoners, without any means of rescue, rushed into the fire and destruction, pulling out the injured and lifeless bodies of the prison staff, even when the prisoners and officers of security Ward 209 emerged with terrified faces, they rushed to the aid of the injured without the slightest discrimination between prisoner and interrogator.

On that day, the prisoners of Ward 4 faced a choice between saving themselves from the clutches of tyranny or saving other human beings, regardless of their beliefs or ideologies. They sacrificed their physical freedom for the lives of people who had previously stood against them. They neither sought revenge nor responded to violence with violence; instead, in the simplest and most honorable way, they remained ‘human’ and gave meaning to humanity, and this is the moment when human compassion transcends the high walls of the prison and remains etched in the memory of history.

But in this very land where these prisoners save the lives of their jailers, in its streets at various times, in November 2019 and during the days of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ uprising in 2022, an inverse scene occurred; government agents, not in the midst of war, but in the calm of the street, aimed their weapons at the people. They drenched the bodies of this land’s youth in blood, shot them in the eyes, and confessed that they had shot not only at heads but also at legs. Not to save anyone’s life, but to preserve the dominance of power. Even on the very day of the attack on Evin, just hours after the shock of the prison bombing subsided, IRGC and intelligence ministry forces aimed their guns at prisoners who were still providing aid. In conditions where the possibility of a second attack still existed, the doors that had opened were locked again. Water was cut off, electricity went out, and darkness once again prevailed everywhere.

But the truth had taken shape before the doors were locked: Political prisoners, with wounded bodies but free hearts, did something that history will not forget. They showed that honor cannot be chained and humanity cannot be suppressed.

Now the question remains forever: Who was the prisoner, and who was free?”