WATCH: Escaping IRGC detention, exclusive eyewitness testimony and pictures from inside Iran
Rouzy Vafaie, an Iranian-American, escaped Iran after being beaten and interrogated at gunpoint. He spoke to me exclusively for Times Radio in London.
I’ve known Rouzy Vafaie for many years; unusually he’s a US / Iranian dual national who’s felt confident enough to live inside Iran, even as the war began. We’ve been in touch throughout, even though communicating with people outside Iran, let alone with journalists, carries huge risk. He told me he was planning to leave via the border with Armenia, but then all contact ceased. For many days I was extremely worried; finally he was able to contact me to tell me he had escaped, but not after days of detention and beatings from Iranian security services.
Rouzy’s testimony offers an extraodinary glimpse into life inside Iran during the war, and the threat to ordinary Iranians from the country’s security services who remain a threat, even after 4 weeks of bombardment by the US and Israel. I spoke to him from Times Radio’s studio in London:
The Times newspaper have published a text report of the story this morning:
Vafaie’s account offers a rare glimpse into life inside Iran, where the internet has been shut down, and the security services have arrested anyone suspected of communicating with the West.
He said that he wanted to speak publicly to give voice to the suffering going on within the country and the brutality of the security apparatus , which has effectively taken control of the running of the regime since the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei.
During the protests that took place earlier this year, Vafaie said that he could hear the sound of machineguns and people screaming in the streets as they called for reform to the authoritarian rule of the mullahs. Up to 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the regime during the demonstrations.
He described a society divided between the ruling class of IRGC members, who typically live in penthouses in the richest neighbourhoods of northern Tehran, and ordinary people who make up the vast majority of the population. (The Times, London)
Alongside his interview, Rouzy was able to share with me exclusive pictures and video of his time inside Iran, showing the ferocity of the attacks on the capital Teheran.
In this video taken after Government-organised celebrations, in the weeks after tens of thousands of civilians were killed, you can hear protesters shouting ‘Death to the Dictator’ in Farsi:
Here you get a sense of what it’s like living under a bombing raid, sheltering inside your own home