The Steps of Evin

Excerpted from The Steps of Evin by Per­sian Umpire:

On one of the nights, a detainee came out who told us that some women were so loose with their hejabs even in Evin, that one of the judges had stopped their release and ordered them to be taken to the Vozara deten­tion center for the night to teach them a lesson. About half an hour later, we saw a bus drive by and go up to the main gate and inside Evin. Its cur­tains were drawn and we couldn’t see inside, but we were sure it had come to take those women. Another half hour went by, and the bus came out of the gate, again with its cur­tains drawn, drove a few meters and stopped. We cau­tiously started walking toward it to see if we could take a peek inside, feeling sorry for all those poor women. The driver rolled down his window and waved to us to come closer. We were sur­prised a bit at this. Some people started to turn away when the bus driver yelled, “Come, I tell you. Don’t be scared.” He told us he had been called to take about fifty people to Vozara, but they hadn’t trans­ferred anyone to him. “I’m going back empty. Look.” We looked through his window and it was empty. “I’m going back empty,” he said again, smiling. “Tell everyone not to worry, they’ll all be released,” he said and took off. It was sur­real for an Evin bus driver to behave this way I thought, but again, this is Iran.

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Tagged as: Evin, iranelection, Persian Umpire