“Living In the Antechamber of Death”
Compiled short stories of political prisoners in Islamic
Republic of Iran.

Introduction

This book is dedicated to the thousands of young men and women, who, under the most brutal regime in the world were tortured with the most horrific physical and psychological methods.

These stories represent a small part of our history. A hidden history that by remembering them, my vessels constrict, resulting in tense body and shivers, subsequently bursting to tears.

Crying, I found, was not the solution, even though I shed tears every day. Therefore, I decided to channel my efforts into translating these stories.

This book is dedicated to all the parents who suffered; parents who lived through the hell of the Islamic regime or died with their children. Finally, this is in remembrances of all people struggling for justice, peace and equality.

Let the world remember that while we were beaten, tortured and executed, McFarlane (then Secretary of State under Ronald Regan) visited Khomeini and took the Bible to him. At that time no one, I mean no one, heard us. No one, I mean NO ONE. I dedicate this book in hope of more translations or publications of our history by others. This includes selections from many books internet sites and memories of survivors of such atrocities. They simply divulge their life and generally do not consider themselves as writers, as I also am not a translator by profession.

I believe these stories are true, as I have personally witnessed similar situations. However, my sincere apology to all writers whose permission I did not have to translate. In some cases, I have also changed the structure of some sentences to fit English speaking readers.

I admit that all of these stories need fine-tuning. Please consider the translation as an amateur work with the intention of revealing the history of what has happened to us. This history, which has never been shared with international tribunes and communities.

Furthermore, three of these memoirs are from the Shah’s prison, the rest are all from Republic  of Islamic regime The use of this print with mentioning of source, writer and translator is free. Finally my sincere thanks to those who helped editing this book: Sara, Laura, Taraneh, Mehrdad, Masoud, Majid, Bijhan, ….

Let the world know what happened to us.

Ali Abani