The Islamic Revolution of 1979 transformed Iran’s politics while preserving, expanding, and modernizing many of the controversial institutions of the previous regime. The same prison systems, rife with allegations of prolonged solitary confinement and psychological abuse, known by Iranian activists as ‘white torture’ shekanjeh sefid, have become central to international human rights concerns.
Before the existence of the Islamic republic, Iran’s prison system had become a tool of political repression. Under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the monarchy relied on the country’s secret intelligence and police service SAVAK. SAVAK, established in 1957 with the help of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad, was used to maintain regime security by targeting political opponents, with reports documenting the arrest, torture, and execution of dissidents. It was these conditions that fuelled resentment towards the previous regime and garnered support for a new Islamic government that vowed to end arbitrary detention and torture. Instead, the Islamic Republic dissolved SAVAK but replaced it with new security and intelligence institutions that adopted many of the same practices. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps functions in a similar fashion to Pahlavi’s SAVAK and detention centres such as Evin Prison remain in use to hold and torture journalists, activists, lawyers, students and political dissidents.
Built by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to suppress political dissent through incarceration and torture, Tehran’s notorious Evin House of Detention has been at the centre of allegations surrounding the torture and maltreatment of political prisoners in Iran. Developed by the Shah to hold 300 political prisoners, including the ayatollahs who campaigned against and ended up overturning the monarchy, the same prison currently holds thousands of detainees with the exact number being unknown due to the government’s secrecy and lack of external reporting. Within Evin prison, there are different sections, the most infamous being Section 209. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited sector 209 of Evin prison and reported there were not merely a few punishment cells as exist in all prisons but rather a ‘prison within a prison’ to facilitate long-term solitary confinement on a large scale. Under international law, prolonged solitary confinement can amount to the crime of torture.
The Iranian regime does routinely use physical torture to extract confessions and dissuade prisoners as well as the general public from expressing dissatisfaction with the regime. They also employ psychological tactics meant to completely break the resolve of prisoners. This practice is referred to pejoratively as ‘white torture.’ This term was coined and is used by Iranian intellectuals, writers, activists and detainees to describe the use of incommunicado solitary confinement in combination with poor conditions manufactured to create confusion, helplessness, isolation and weaken political prisoners’ willpower. The term was popularized internationally by Narges Mohammadi’s book White Torture but the practice of psychological torture and sensory deprivation has existed for centuries in many countries including The United States, particularly post 9/11 at Guantánamo Bay. This method of torture assaults the five senses and the integrity of an individual and has become much more sophisticated and widespread.
Political prisoners held in detention in Iran are denied due process, access to counsel and a public trial. Raids, random arrests and expedited sham trials send thousands of Iranians to incarceration on charges such as: ‘spreading corruption on earth,’ ‘enmity against God,’ and espionage. These charges are often made using false confessions extracted through torture and prisoners continue to be tortured during their sentence.
White torture has become common practice in Iran and many former detainees describe this form of torture as more psychologically devastating than physical abuse for its long lasting effects. Evin Prison’s solitary confinement cells are soundproof, keeping detainees from even communicating with each other, completely isolating them from the world and human contact, aside from the interrogators. Prisoners report going months without hearing their own names. Bright, artificial lights are kept on 24/7 in the white, windowless cells dismantling any concept of time. Cells contain no beds or toilets, with some prisoners asking for adult diapers as the preferable option. Former prisoners have described these cells as ‘coffins.’ The absence of external monitoring also allows for further abuse. Human rights organizations argue that judges, security forces and prison guards act with near-total impunity, with no accountability and answering only to the Supreme Leader. Families of deceased/murdered prisoners have stated that they have received their loved ones’ bodies without a single bone intact.
Since the protests of December 2025 and January 2026, and subsequent American-Israeli war on Iran, Amnesty International has reported that a large number of protestors, activists and journalists have been swept up in a widespread crackdown against dissent in an effort to preserve the regime’s narrative. Not only are their lives in danger at the hands of the government, but they have also been trapped under American and Israeli bombs.
Prisoners have reported to Human Rights Watch that their time in solitary was worse than any physical torture they experienced, rendering them completely hopeless and instilling an everlasting feeling of loneliness that never dissipates even after release. Many former detainees recount needing medication to sleep and being haunted by their memories in solitary at Evin Detention centre. Constant artificial lighting disrupts the circadian rhythm, inducing sleep deprivation, confusion, anxiety and impaired cognition. Combined with complete social isolation, detainees lose their sense of self and personal autonomy. These conditions have resulted in hallucinations, panic attacks, PTSD, memory loss, and an inability to reintegrate after release.
Narges Mohammadi, Iranian journalist, human rights defender, recipient of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, and author of White Torture, has been a leading voice in exposing the reality of detention in Iran. Mohammadi has dedicated much of her life to campaigning against the death penalty, advocating for women’s rights and documenting the treatment of political prisoners under the Islamic Republic. Her activism has come at a great personal cost with the majority of her last 15 years having been spent behind bars as she suffers cardiac issues. Her experience behind bars at Evin Prison became the basis for her book which collected testimonies from other women subjected to prolonged solitary confinement during their detention.
Mohammadi recounts being blindfolded, held in windowless cells under constant artificial light while being denied human contact for extended periods of time. In her own words, solitary confinement ‘systematically breaks a person down psychologically through isolation, fear, and sensory deprivation.’ Instead of relying on physical violence, interrogators and prison guards use uncertainty, silence and destruction of time to gradually wear away at one’s sense of self.
This practice is not limited to high profile Iranian human rights defenders like Mohammadi. Since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests many regular civilians including artists have fallen victim to the many abuses rampant in the Iranian prison systems. Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi is one of them. He was arrested after criticizing the Iranian government on social media during the protests and described his treatment following a temporary release. He recounted being subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, being denied due process, and alleged that he was physically and psychologically tortured while in detention. He initially received a death sentence that was subsequently overturned by the Iranian Supreme Court after widespread international condemnation. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) found that Salehi’s detention was arbitrary and violated international human rights standards. He was denied basic legal safeguards, legal provisions used against him failed to meet international standards, and the conditions of his detention were deemed serious violations.
International human rights law recognizes that prolonged solitary confinement may constitute torture. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, define solitary confinement as detention for at least 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact and classifies confinement for more than 15 consecutive days as ‘prolonged solitary confinement.’ Testimony from Evin Prison suggests detainees may be subjected to conditions prohibited by the Mandela Rules. Not only do they violate international standards for the treatment of prisoners, these practices undermine the right to a fair trial and create conditions suitable for extracting false confessions as well as facilitating other forms of torture. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights noted that ‘prolonged incommunicado detention may facilitate the perpetration of torture and can itself constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture’. The European Commission on Human Rights has stated that ‘complete sensory isolation coupled with total social isolation, can destroy the personality and constitutes a form of treatment which cannot be justified by the requirements of security or any other reason’. White torture should be acknowledged as a serious form of abuse despite its lack of visible wounds.
The Iranian government must immediately dismantle the use of prolonged solitary confinement and all forms of physical and psychological torture that violate international human rights law and the United Nations Nelson Mandela Rules. There should be an increase in international monitoring by independent Iranian organizations and international monitoring bodies, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran in an effort to investigate alleged torture, forced disappearances, and arbitrary detention. The international community should increase diplomatic pressure through targeted sanctions directed at those responsible, including government officials and prison guards. Furthermore, there must be international support and protection for Iranian journalists, activists, human rights defenders and political dissidents, granting them access to legal assistance, mental health care and asylum pathways for survivors of torture. Dismantling the system requires independent national investigations, sustained international scrutiny, accountability for perpetrators, and continued support for those who risk their freedom and lives to defend fundamental human rights.
White torture may not leave visible scars but it is just as detrimental to the human body and psyche. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s detention practices and use of solitary confinement amount to torture under international humanitarian law in violation of the Mandela Rules and carry long-lasting effects on its victims. The state seeks to completely destroy dissent with the use of these practices that suppress dissent on a large scale by striking fear into activists, journalists, and everyday citizens. As long as these methods are in use, international scrutiny is necessary to ensure the safety of detainees and to uphold international human rights.