Animals
-
-
The beach files -
Interesting people - unforgettable faces -
Burma (Myanmar) -
Armenia -
Tadżykistan
Ebrat Museum in Tehran
Ebrat Museum in Tehran
Western media often discuss the Islamic regime in Iran, portraying the ayatollahs as symbols of evil. However, at the Ebrat Museum, we learn a different story, one that stations like CNN or the BBC will never cover. There, we see a prison of various kinds, where Iranians were tortured by the pro-American Shah’s secret police and their allied Mossad agents.
The Ebrat Museum
Across from the bazaar and the above-mentioned monuments lies a haunting and shocking, yet historically valuable, site. The Ebrat Museum houses an exhibition devoted to the atrocities committed by Shah Pahlavi’s secret police in the 1970s. In this former prison, I witnessed the brutality of professional executioners who tortured prisoners in many horrific ways. This was the despised “Internal Security Agency” SAVAK. Western propaganda likes to talk about the “atrocities of the Islamic regime” but never mentions the atrocities of the Shah, an ally of the US and Israel.
On the walls of Ebrat museum there are plaques with the names of former prisoners.
I call this horrific place the “torture centre of democracy” because it was intended for the Shah’s political opposition. The prisoners were largely Shiite clerics and activists allied with the clerics who fought against his pro-American and pro-Israeli regime. Importantly, I saw that Iranians were tortured not only by Iranians from the so-called security agencies. Iranians were also tortured by Mossad agents, and the flags of this terrorist organization are displayed in the Ebrat Museum, next to the figures of their persecutors.
Some might say that this museum is Islamic propaganda, but I don’t believe it. Many of the torturers of Poles in communist Poland were Jews. It was Jews who sentenced Polish patriots to long prison terms and death, and then fled to Israel, Sweden, and Great Britain. The same thing happened in Iran, so I understand why Iranians supported Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution.
Former prisoner Ebrat Ali Khamenei, in front of his cell after many years.
In my 2013 article on Iran, I wrote that the Shah was so pro-American and anti-Iranian that he said, “If an American runs over an Iranian with a car, he doesn’t have to answer.” Iranians’ blood boiled, and Khomeini finally won. Prisoners were interrogated in a variety of ways. They were hung by their hands and feet, tied to metal fences, others were placed on metal beds and electrocuted, while Mossad agents drove long pins under their fingernails. Under such circumstances, any of the tortured might even confess to being the King of England. In a cell approximately 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters, with dim lighting and a foul-smelling mat, sometimes one, sometimes as many as six prisoners were locked up. The humor of the persecutors determined how to inflict pain on them, whether to throw them down the stairs or beat them.
One of the tortured prisoners was the current spiritual leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. I was at his cell.
Martin Malik
Ebrat Prison (now a museum) was not just a prison but a torture hell. It reminded me of Tuol Sleng Prison (S-21) in Cambodia, where many of the tortures were the same as at Ebrat. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot and Shah Pahlavi certainly shared common traits in terms of paranoia and the desire to inflict suffering. How is it that communism and democracy share so many common features, and that Jews have always played a central role in both systems?
Interrogation executioners in Ebrat prison. On the desk: flags of Mossad and Savak (the so-called “security agency”).
Portraits of prisoners are displayed throughout the museum, life-size figures of the torturers and persecuted, red paint spattered on the walls, posters of suffering and tears, and portraits of the Shah and his family. When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, Shah Pahlavi and his family fled to the US like rats from a sinking ship. It was the same with the Jewish-commies in Poland. They, too, have not been held accountable for their crimes. At the entrance to the museum are the Shah’s luxury cars, and on the walls are metal plaques with the names of prisoners.
I’ve been to the Ebrat Museum twice. In 2013, I was guided by a former prisoner, and in 2024, by a young man who spoke good English. He had nothing against Poland or Poles, but he didn’t like my British accent and became suspicious. Well, he wasn’t the only one. Wherever I go, first they dislike me for being “English,” and then they start smiling because I’m Polish; though not everyone believes it. It’s a shame. What did I do to these people? Both guides were with me the whole time, showing me the sad cells, the statues of the tortured, the showers, and the torture chambers. We ended up in a circular square with a small pool of water. From there, I also saw figures of people tied to fences. I consider the Ebrat Museum a must-see in Tehran, although I advise against taking children.
Hanging prisoners in various positions on an iron gate was one of the constant forms of torture of the Shah’s and Mossad’s men.
!! Link to the official website of Ebrat Museum.
Ebrat Museum and the Islamic Revolution
Ebrat Museum doesn’t discuss the course and causes of the Islamic Revolution itself, but it allows us to understand why the revolution occurred. Iranians are a strong and courageous people who refused to be second-class citizens in their own country. It also allows us to learn about Iran’s dark history under the rule of the pro-American Shah and to reconsider the propaganda of the US “democratic liberators” against Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has had to defend itself against the “freedom and democracy” of the US and Israel because it wants to be independent.
(I realize that Iran has many internal problems related to the Islamic Regime, and that’s why this article does not constitute an unqualified endorsement of the ayatollahs, but rather an attempt to understand their perspective.)
I am writing this article in June 2025, at a time when Zionist Israel is bombing Tehran. Just five months ago, I was walking through Tehran, and today Israel is dropping bombs and killing people there. My memories of Iran and the Ebrat Museum are still fresh.
Political prisoners in their small cell. They tortured those from ‘freedom and democracy’. Ebrat Museum. Tehran.
I also see that during the 12-Day War, the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, went to Israel and is having fun with Zionist Jews. He has much to say about the brutality of the Islamic regime, but perhaps little about his father’s regime. It’s also certain that Israel is planning a regime change in Iran, and it’s clear who they’ve chosen as their effigy. A photo of Reza Pahlavi as a little boy still appears in the Ebrat Museum.
Summary
I consider the Ebrat Museum an important place to visit if you want to learn about Iranian history not written by the “most democratic countries in the world”. This terrible prison and its horrific torture chambers help us understand Shah Pahlavi’s methods and why his policies led to the Islamic Revolution. I hope my article will help others develop independent thinking.
The main square of Ebrat prison, with a body of water in the middle. Tehran.
TAGS
