Kavian Milani: Message to the Torturer

Each of us have perhaps found ourselves in a situation where we have been bullied by somebody in a powerful position, and remained silent out of expediency or fear. He or she may have been a friend, the neighborhood bully, an interrogator, or even a murderer.

Now imagine that years after the distressing event you have the chance to talk to that person and tell him how you felt, what you think and whatever else is on your mind.

IranWire asked a number of political and civil activists and artists who have been the victims of interrogators, or have been forced to be separated from their families, to imagine they are in the interrogation room and are able to talk to their bully, send him a message, or speak to those responsible for victimizing their family members.

In the third part of this series, Mahrokh Gholamhosseinpor asked Dr. Kavian Milani, a medical doctor, researcher and philanthropist currently living in Virginia, to record a message. Director of  Virginia Family Medicine, LLC and the Center for Health and Human Rights, many Iranians and Americans consider Milani to be one of the top Iranian-American medical doctors.

His father, Dr. Kambiz Sadeghzadeh Milani, was a US-educated psychiatrist who, along with other members of Iran’s National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is, was abducted in the summer of 1980. They were taken to an unknown location and were most likely killed in the following weeks and years.

He was 13 when his father disappeared forever, but he says that neither he nor his family harbor any hate towards the abductors and killers of his father. “We leave them with themselves, their conscience and their god,” says Dr. Milani. “Forgiveness is necessary for Iran to become a country of friendship and coexistence.”

IranWire has recorded a number of messages from victims. And perhaps you have had similar experiences as well. If you have, we ask you to participate in this project. For more information — technical or otherwise — email us at [email protected].