The Iranian dissident and writer Mehdi Mahmoudian on the outbreak of war in Iran, his experience inside the country’s prison system, and his fears for the future. Plus:
• What is Trump’s endgame?
• Amy Davidson Sorkin on the future of the Democratic Party
• A new essay by David Sedaris
Illustration by Chloe Cushman; Source photograph from AP
Cora Engelbrecht
A reporter based in London and New York.
The last time American bombs fell on Tehran, in 2025, Mehdi Mahmoudian, an Iranian dissident, was locked inside the Evin House of Detention. He later wrote that he felt “caught between the claws of foreign beasts and domestic torturers, being passed from one to another.” His words resonate today, as Israel and the United States bombard Iranian cities. Until very recently, Mahmoudian was one of thousands of prisoners languishing in Iran’s prisons. He was arrested in January for signing a public letter that blamed the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the murders of thousands of protesters, who were cut down by security forces after taking to the streets. By Mahmoudian’s count, he has spent about nine of the past sixteen years in prison for his activism.
Earlier this week, I reached him for a long, wide-ranging conversation—his first since he was released from Nowshahr Prison, on February 17th. We spoke about his first prison sentence, when he was twenty years old, about the abuses he’s witnessed and endured over the decades, and about how those experiences taught him to find empathy even for his abusers. This moral compass helped him write the Oscar-nominated film “It Was Just an Accident” with the director Jafar Panahi, whom he met when both were incarcerated in the Evin House of Detention.
Mahmoudian and I connected again in the hours after it emerged that Khamenei had been killed in an air strike. His reaction was not celebratory. He warned that Iran may be entering “an even more repressive and difficult era.”
What is your response to the news of Khamenei’s death? This man ruled over Iran for thirty-seven years. You were imprisoned by his regime at least six times.
I have to say honestly that I wasn’t happy. I believe people should be held accountable, and that accountability must take place in a fair court of law so that such actions are not repeated. All those who were harmed should have the opportunity to seek justice.
Seeking justice is not about revenge. It is about insuring that the individual is punished through due process, and more important, that those actions are formally recorded in history as crimes. That way, future rulers cannot repeat them. I believe death was not enough for Mr. Khamenei. He should have stood trial in a public court, before the people, and faced judgment openly and with full accountability.
You were imprisoned in Evin Prison in June, and your ward was bombarded by an Israeli air strike. You wrote an account about how the guards used the prisoners as human shields. What are your biggest fears for the prisoners in Iran right now?
The main problem with the prisons right now is that, given the collapse of some judiciary buildings and prosecutors’ offices in Iran—especially the security court that handled political and security prisoners’ cases—many case files have gone missing. If the Islamic Republic remains in power, it may take months before even basic legal review becomes possible again, and many prisoners could be left in a state of legal limbo.
I hope the Islamic Republic reaches its end, otherwise even harsher days could lie ahead for prisoners. There is a real concern that what remains of the system may seek revenge for these events, targeting prisoners and political activists who are still outside prison, detaining them, and subjecting them to executions or severe punishments.
Is it possible that we are entering into a darker moment than before?
Based on what I’m seeing, I don’t have much hope that these attacks will lead to the complete fall of the Islamic Republic. If that doesn’t happen, we could be heading into an even more repressive and difficult era, and the conditions from now on may become significantly harsher.
I truly hope my prediction is wrong, that my analysis proves to be mistaken and that the people of Iran will at least see some measure of freedom, that our generation will be able to experience even a part of it.
