A State of Fear

This is the book the Iranian authorities have been dreading you might one day read and have taken drastic measures to ensure that you don't. It is a story of such horrific brutality that anyone who was sceptical about claims that Iran is part of the 'axis of evil' will have that scepticism dispelled by the time they finish reading it. A real insight into the sickening torture jails of Iran and the gut-wrenching horror of the treatment dished out to political prisoners who oppose the regime, this does not make easy reading. Dr. Reza Ghaffari was a professor at the University of Tehran until his arrest in the spring of 1981, under suspicion of being a member of a banned socialist group. This is his story from the time of his arrest to his eventual escape a decade later. It recounts his experiences through ten years of torture and as a witness to, and near victim of, prison massacres. But the book is not merely a catalogue of atrocities. It is also one of triumph for integrity and...