WARNING: What follows may be disturbing to some.
The other night, we had one of my son's friends from work visit our house. He is a twenty-five year old man born in Iran. He holds citizenship in Iran, the USA, and Germany. He is a student at a local university, majoring in electronic engineering. He speaks Farsi, Arabic, German, and English. Also Spanish, "but not very well."
He showed us YouTube videos of art and music in Iran, beautiful things.
He is not happy with the way things are in Iran today. He thinks it was better under the Shah. He thinks the president of Iran is a disgrace, an embarrassment.
He said that there is great oppression in Iran. The police investigate crimes such as murder and burglary. But there are groups of vigilantes who enforce moral standards. This group is Hezbollah. He said that these people drive around town looking for people who violate their standards. They drive pickup trucks with a metal post in the back. When they see someone who violates a moral standard, they grab this person, handcuff him to the pole, then drive around town torturing him and whipping him, ending by cutting off his head.
This young man told us of something he personally witnessed. There were tears in his eyes as he remembered it. When he was in high school, a girl held her boyfriend's hand for an instant, just touching it for a second. Hezbollah grabbed her, forced her down on the ground, and laid a black sheet over her. Then they whipped her with short, heavy knotted whips 250 times. At first, he could hear her screaming. Then her screams stopped. Around the hundredth blow, blood began running out from under the sheet.
After seeing this, he was unable to go to school for weeks because he was so sickened and horrified.
He does not plan to return to Iran. He says he loves the United States, and that most people his age in Iran also love the United States. One of his relatives is on the death list, and if this relative tried to return to Iran, they would catch him at customs, take him around behind the building, and torture him until he died.
I've read in the paper about atrocities like these, but it is different to talk to someone who has seen it personally.
We are lucky not to live in Iran.



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