Trapped in Iran :: Extraordinary story of Journalist in captivity
It was liberating to have the run of Tehran, without minders, deadlines or chores. But of course, I wasn’t truly free. I policed myself on behalf of the regime, becoming my own jailer and censor, aware that any lapse could have consequences. Sometimes I tried to speak over colleagues or relatives who were saying things that I feared might enrage my captors. I felt the presence of hundreds of electronic eyes. The friendliest faces who greeted me might be informers. And I could not leave Iran. It is an odd experience to know that you can be caught out at any time. But this was the way of Tehran. Some avenues open up, others close. Everyone feels like a captive. There are those who say that it is all a grand plan of the ayatollahs to keep people on edge.
Nicolas Pelham, English-born Jew & the Economist’s Middle East correspondent, was first kidnapped and then put under house-arrest by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. Seven weeks Pelham was confined to the borders of what “may well be the least religious capital in the Middle East.”
long-read iran travel exotic autocratic