Roxanna Saberi was living the American dream. Born in New Jersey of immigrant parents—her father was from Iran, her mother from Japan—she grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. After graduating from Concordia College, she received a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University and a second master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge. In 2007, she was crowned Miss North Dakota and finished in the top ten in the Miss America contest. It’s become a cliché for Miss America contestants to wish for world peace, but Saberi, working as a journalist in Iran, was trying to build bridges between two disparate cultures. Until she was arrested and charged with being a spy.
In Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran, Saberi details her 100-day nightmare, cut off from her family and friends, stripped of all her worldly possessions (even pen and paper, serious withdrawal for a journalist), and subjected to lengthy interrogations by Iranian officials. Her idealism is dealt a crushing blow. She had set out to write a book about Iran, interviewing more than 60 people with the hope of showing the world the country she was discovering. During her questioning, she learns that her every step—travel, emails, phone calls—had been monitored by the authorities, placing not only her, but also those she had spoken to, at risk.
Saberi endures the monotony of solitary confinement in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, her cell bare except for a rusty sink (she was told not to drink the water), a non-working toilet, and four frayed military blankets. In the evening she hears other prisoners weeping, retching, and crying out in pain.
With so much time to think, Roxanna berates herself for ignoring the signs of danger. She finds out that she wasn’t being paranoid when she saw two people filming her in a park. One acquaintance, Hassan, had advised her never to argue with intelligence agents. As her interrogation continues, she understands that Hassan, too, was spying on her. “Only he (Hassan) had known about some of the points my interrogators had mentioned,” Saberi writes. “And on a few occasions, he had behaved suspiciously.”
After many days of questioning, Roxanna does something she never thought possible. She agrees to “cooperate” with her Iranian interrogators by implicating someone she knows. In the book he’s identified as “Mr. D,” and she is careful not to give the authorities too much ammunition. Even though Mr. D lives in the U.S., she still fears for his safety. “I’m sorry Mr. D! I have to pick you as my scapegoat. Please forgive me. You are safe in America, but I am in danger in Iran. Please understand that I have to fabricate a story about you to save my life.”
She comes to regret her decision. After writing out her confession, she also is told she must repeat the words before a camera. What will happen with this film? Will it be broadcast to the world? Has she truly endangered someone else to save herself? When she finally receives cellmates, she discovers that other women refused to “cooperate,” defying their captors even when threatened with death. She hides her secret from her fellow prisoners, ashamed that she was not stronger.
No longer in solitary confinement, Roxana is assigned a rotating roster of cellmates, most intent on opposing oppression in Iran. She reaches a turning point. Inspired by their courage, she decides to resist her captives, recanting her confession and staging a hunger strike. Receiving a surprise visit from her mother and father, she is shocked that her imprisonment has become a cause célèbre, taken up by U.S. government officials as well as dozens of journalism groups and media organizations. Facing a prison sentence of eight years, Saberi is remarkably calm. When she is finally freed, her release is bittersweet.
“My tears were both of joy and sorrow: joy at my freedom but sorrow for the prisoners of conscience I was leaving behind, who were being punished simply because of their peaceful pursuit of basic human rights or for their beliefs,” she writes.
The words of one of the women continues to resonate with her and with her audience: “Roxana, when you go back to America, please tell others that our country is not only about the nuclear issue, but about people like us.”
Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran
Roxana Saberi
