White Torture and Silent Execution in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Written by: Reza Ashouri
Abstract This essay examines two interrelated practices of state repression deployed by the Islamic Republic of Iran against its own citizens: white torture, a form of psychological coercion through sensory deprivation and prolonged solitary confinement, and silent execution, a mode of concealed state killing through enforced disappearance and medical neglect. Drawing on the existing scholarship, the essay situates both practices within the broader history of the Islamic Republic’s repression of the Iranian people, from the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022 to the January 2026 crackdown. Keywords: white torture, silent execution, enforced disappearance, political repression When we talk about state violence in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the conversation often turns to executions and street crackdowns. Yet some of the most consequential violence the Islamic Republic has inflicted on the Iranian people happens quietly, inside cells, inside bureaucracies, and inside communication blackouts. Two terms have emerged, partly from scholarship and partly from the testimonies of Iranian survivors, to describe this quieter violence: white torture and silent execution . This essay defines both concepts, explains how scholars and human rights bodies distinguish between them, and traces how the Islamic Republic has deployed both against ordinary Iranians across more than four decades of authoritarian rule, with particular attention to the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022 and the deadly crackdown of January 2026. Throughout, it is important to draw a clear distinction between the Iranian people, who are the victims and resisters of this repression, and the Islamic Republic, the state apparatus that designs and carries out these practices. Defining White Torture White torture is a form of psychological torture rooted in extreme sensory deprivation and prolonged solitary confinement (Reyes, 2007). Rather than attacking the body with visible instruments, it strips the prisoner of the basic environmental and social stimuli that anchor human cognition, identity, and temporal orientation. The cell is monochromatic, typically white. Sound is suppressed. Natural light is eliminated. Food arrives without colour or variety. Human conversation disappears. Ordinary markers of time, such as sunrise, meals, or conversation, are replaced by featureless repetition (Mohammadi, 2022; Khodaei, 2017). The clinical consequences are documented in peer-reviewed medical and psychological literature. Grassian (2006), writing in the Washington University Journal of Law and Policy , describes a specific psychiatric syndrome associated with solitary confinement that includes perceptual distortions, hypersensitivity to external stimuli, paranoia, cognitive impairment, and acute anxiety. A peer-reviewed study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that clinically significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, or guilt appeared in roughly half of a rando…
