'I wed Iranian girls before execution'
SABINA AMIDI, Special to The Jerusalem Post , THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 19,
2009
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In a shocking and unprecedented interview, directly exposing the inhumanity
of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's religious regime in Iran, a serving member
of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in
suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.

He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including
his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their
execution.

The interview took place by telephone, and on condition of anonymity. It was
arranged by a reliable source whose identity can also not be revealed.

Founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 as a "people's militia," the
volunteer Basiji force is subordinate to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
and intensely loyal to Khomeini's successor, Khamenei.

The Basiji member, who is married with children, spoke soon after his
release by the Iranian authorities from detention. He had been held for the
"crime" of having set free two Iranian teenagers - a 13-year-old boy and a
15-year-old girl - who had been arrested during the disturbances that have
followed the disputed June presidential elections.

"There have been many other police and members of the security forces
arrested because they have shown leniency toward the protesters out on the
streets, or released them from custody without consulting our superiors," he
said.

He pinned the blame for much of the most ruthless violence employed by the
Iranian security apparatus against opposition protesters on what he called
"imported security forces" - recruits, as young as 14 and 15, he said, who
have been brought from small villages into the bigger cities where the
protests have been centered.

"Fourteen and 15-year old boys are given so much power, which I am sorry to
say they have abused," he said. "These kids do anything they please -
forcing people to empty out their wallets, taking whatever they want from
stores without paying, and touching young women inappropriately. The girls
are so frightened that they remain quiet and let them do what they want."

These youngsters, and other "plainclothes vigilantes," were committing most
of the crimes in the names of the regime, he said.

Asked about his own role in the brutal crackdowns on the protesters, whether
he had been beaten demonstrators and whether he regretted his actions, he
answered evasively.

"I did not attack any of the rioters - and even if I had, it is my duty to
follow orders," he began. "I don't have any regrets," he went on, "except
for when I worked as a prison guard during my adolescence."

Explaining how he had come to join the volunteer Basiji forces, he said his
mother had taken him to them.

When he was 16, "my mother took me to a Basiji station and begged them to
take me under their wing because I had no one and nothing foreseeable in my
future. My father was martyred during the war in Iraq and she did not want
me to get hooked on drugs and become a street thug. I had no choice," he
said.

He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so
"impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to
temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless
of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding"
ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is
forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by
her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.

Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of
their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the
morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping
pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it
seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said.
"I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with
her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."

Returning to the events of the last few weeks, and his decision to set free
the two teenage detainees, he said he "honestly" did not know why he had
released them, a decision that led to his own arrest, "but I think it was
because they were so young. They looked like children and I knew what would
happen to them if they weren't released."

He said that while a man is deemed "responsible for his own actions at 13,
for a woman it is 9," and that it was freeing the 15-year-old girl that
"really got me in trouble.

"I was not mistreated or really interrogated while being detained," he said.
"I was put in a tiny room and left alone. It was hard being isolated, so I
spent most of my time praying and thinking about my wife and kids."