The internal dynamics of dictatorships are often revealed in their prison systems, due to the deeply oppressive nature of such regimes. That’s why the prison diary genre has developed to shed a harsh light on these mechanisms of arbitrariness, dispelling some of the opacity maintained by autocratic regimes to better protect themselves.
Detained from June 2019 to February 2023, French-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah goes beyond this type of literature, however, in Prisonnière à Téhéran (“Prisoner in Tehran”). She has drawn on her long experience as a researcher to deliver a formidable analysis of the inside of Evin prison, Iran’s equivalent of the Bastille, dedicated to stifling dissent under both the Shah’s regime and the Islamic Republic.
Indeed, it was from Evin that Adelkhah launched her poignant appeal to “save researchers, save research to save history.” But far from following the classic canons of academic work, Adelkhah’s book mixes chronicles of daily prison life with more structural reflections.
Ongoing power struggles
Adelkhah brilliantly unravels the dynamics of the ongoing tug-of-war within the Evin prison between the Revolutionary Guards, the regime’s armed wing, and the Interior Ministry. In the Islamic Republic, the latter has been entrusted with repressive functions devolved to the infamous Savak under the Shah.
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