The Tenpenny Files with Homeira Hesami & Shirin Nariman

The people being arrested in Iran are not who most people think they are. They are not high-level operatives or people running organized movements. In many cases, they are young, paying attention, and connected to the wrong place at the wrong time. Homeira Hesami and Shirin Nariman were teenagers when they were taken, and what they describe shows how quickly that line can be crossed.

Once you are inside, everything shifts. You are questioned, separated, and forced to figure out what is happening by watching what happens to other people. Some are taken away and don’t come back. That’s how you start to understand where you are.

What follows an arrest in Iran is not something most people here would recognize. This explains what happens to political prisoners in Iran and why people are still being arrested for political activity today. There is no clear process, no timeline you can rely on, and no control over how long it lasts or how it ends.

Part of what makes this harder to process is how often Iran is framed as a problem that started at a specific point in time. That’s not what they describe. What they lived through shows a pattern of control that didn’t begin with one regime and didn’t disappear with another. That is why the people inside the country are not trying to go backward. They are trying to replace the structure that allowed it to happen in the first place.

There is also a part of this that rarely gets explained in a way that connects to what people actually experience. The MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran are described here as organized opposition that continues to operate despite ongoing arrests and executions. The regime continues to treat it as a threat, which is why people connected to it continue to be targeted.

Both women made it out. Not everyone did, and some of what happened to them was never spoken out loud.

It starts in ways that don’t look dangerous, and by the time it does, you don’t control what happens next. You can keep looking at Iran like it’s someone else’s problem, or you can hear what actually happens when people speak up and pay for it.

Meet our Guests

Homeira Hesami is an Iranian-American activist and former political prisoner. She was arrested at sixteen for her political beliefs and spent time in prison, including solitary confinement. After leaving Iran, she earned a master’s degree in medical physics from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and now advocates for a free, democratic, secular Iran.

Shirin Nariman is a former political prisoner and human rights advocate. She was arrested at fifteen for pro-democracy activity and endured severe torture in Evin Prison. She now speaks publicly about human rights violations and the ongoing fight for freedom in Iran.

Website

https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/