"Roxana, when you go back to America," my cellmate entreated me last month, "please tell others that our country is not only about the nuclear issue. It is also about people like us."
My cellmate was one of the many "prisoners of conscience" I left behind when I was released from Tehran's Evin Prison on May 11. Many were women, student and labor activists, researchers, and academics who have been detained solely because they peacefully pursued freedom of expression, freedom of association or religious beliefs. Several of them face vague charges such as "acting against national security," like I did.
Iran's hard-liners frequently accuse such people of using "soft warfare" -- allegedly in collusion with state enemies, the United States in particular -- to penetrate Iranian culture, society and politics. Such "soft threats" are very real, my interrogator declared one day during my 100 days in Evin. Even if the threat of a military attack appears to have subsided under President Obama, he said, Washington will continue using soft warfare to undermine the Islamic Republic and its Islamic ideology.
Tehran has legitimate security concerns. But hard-liners often exaggerate and exploit "soft threats" to tighten their grip on society and to silence critics. This "security-oriented" view has become especially prevalent under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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