My name is Jason Rezaian.
I'm a global opinions writer for The Washington Post.
And I spent 544 days in an Iranian prison.
We were preparing to go to a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law and
while we were getting ready to leave
back to our apartment,
seized our
It was ultimate
but also a deep, deep
sense that
The main accusation was that I was the station
chief of the CIA in Tehran.
I thought to myself, nothing could be more ridiculous.
I was placed in solitary confinement as was my wife.
I was told consistently that
she and I would
within a matter of days and hours,
but other times they told me you're going to be
freed within a matter of hours.
So it was this constant
really started to to set in.
I could lie down in
one direction but not the other.
And there were two windows very high up near
the ceiling with bars over them
that I couldn't see out of ...
There was a big metal door
as you can imagine that had two holes.
One at eye level that they could open the door
and bark orders at me ... and then
one slot down below
that they would put food in
twice a day as if
I was a dog.
Unknowingly did the one thing that is best for people
who experience severe trauma which was I moved,
I began pacing in my cell
thousands upon thousands of back-and-forths
between these eight-and-a-half feet of wall every day.
And I worked very hard to to keep it on my side.
I tried more than anything to make plans.
If you get in that pattern of thinking
Once you get into that narrative
it's very difficult to break out of it.
So instead, I tried to construct a narrative
of what am I gonna do after this?
But it's possible to trick your mind into
thinking things aren't as bad as they actually are.
After I came out of solitary confinement,
I went from a space where
to one where I did have some human contact.
Yes, most of it was with my captors. But it wasn't that
that one experiences when they're in solitary confinement.
Four and a half years after that experience
I think that for the rest of my life
I will be a vocal advocate for
across the board because I think as a punishment but also as as a tool to
potentially extract information from people,
And I hope that it becomes
a relic of history in my lifetime.