Cracks in the Wall

As Iran teeters on the brink of civil war, with close to 17,000 dead and thousands more injured over the past weeks, three dissidents who in the last decade survived the regime’s most feared prisons tell Mishpacha about torture, interrogations, and the obsession with Israel.

Their testimonies offer a glimpse into the suffering that haunts millions of Iranians — and raises the question on everyone’s mind: Is the end of the rule of the ayatollahs finally here?

A gray morning rose over the northern Iranian town of Sangsarveh on October 28, 2022. A black Subaru sped along the winding mountain roads, carrying Tehran-based journalist Ehsan Pirbornash and three members of his family.

From a bend in the road, a silver sedan swerved in front of the Subaru, while a black Peugeot boxed them in from behind. Three men jumped out, dragged Pirbornash from the vehicle, and two hours later he was in a dimly lit interrogation room at a detention facility in Sari, capital of Mazandaran Province.

Marked Man

Ehsan Pirbornash, 43, is a former editor of the state-run sports magazine Varzeshii, as well as a former satirical commentator who wasn’t scared to voice criticism of the regime. Prior to his arrest, he reported via Twitter on the protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested by the morality police for violating the country’s religious dress code. Following Amini’s death in custody, Iran’s press corps paid a heavy price for reporting on her murder and the nationwide protests that followed. Scores of journalists were among those arrested as Iranian authorities cracked down on the demonstrators.

“I was well known in the Iranian journalism world,” Pirbornash tells Mishpacha from his German home-in-exile, happy, he says, to be speaking with Israeli media. “But everything ended three years ago, when the regime put me on its radar.”