white torture

Visually, the prisoner is deprived of all colour. Their cell is completely white: the walls, floor and ceiling, as well as their clothes and food. Neon tubes are positioned above the occupant in such a way that no shadows appear.{{Cn|date=June 2025}}

Auditorily, the cell is soundproof, and void of any sound, voices or social interaction.{{Cn|date=June 2025}} Guards stand in silence, wearing padded shoes to avoid making any noise. Prisoners cannot hear anything but themselves.{{Cn|date=June 2025}}

In terms of taste and smell, the prisoner is fed white food—classically, unseasoned rice—to deprive them of these senses. Further, all surfaces are smooth, robbing them of the variability of touch sensations.{{Cn|date=June 2025}}

Detainees are often held for months, or even years.{{Cn|date=June 2025}} The effects of white torture are well-documented in a number of testimonials.{{Cn|date=June 2025}} Typically, prisoners will become depersonalized by losing personal identity for extended periods of isolation. Other effects can include hallucinations or psychosis.David Morgan, [http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp%3Fid%3D10156+%22white+torture%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=97&gl=uk Violations of human...rights of the Kurds in Turkey]{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Kurdish Media, March 22, 2005.

In Iran, white torture ({{langx|fa|شكنجه سفيد}}) has been practiced on political prisoners by the Islamic republic regime.{{cite news | first= Karl | last=Vick | url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20714-2004Jun6.html | title= Report Cites 'Climate of Fear' in Iran| newspaper= The Washington Post| date=June 7, 2004}} Most political prisoners who experience this type of torture are journalists{{cite web | url=http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12878 | title= UN human rights commission urged to sanction Iran| website= rsf.org| publisher= Reporters Without Borders| date=March 15, 2005}} held in the Evin prison.{{cite web | publisher=Amnesty International| url= http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130012007?open&of=ENG-IRN | title= Iran:... Kianoosh Sanjari| website= amnesty.org| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071012110838/http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130012007?open&of=ENG-IRN |archive-date=2007-10-12 | date= January 10, 2007}} "Amir Fakhravar, the Iranian white room prisoner, was tortured at Evin prison for 8 months in 2004. He still has trauma regarding his times in the white room."{{Cn|date=June 2025}} According to Hadi Ghaemi{{who|date=July 2025}}, such tortures in Evin are not necessarily authorized directly by the Iranian government.{{Cite news |first=Doug |last=Saunders |url= https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070219.wiran19/BNStory/International/home |title=Few know who is held behind the tiled walls of Tehran's Evin prison |date=February 19, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070222035604/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070219.wiran19/BNStory/International/home |archive-date=February 22, 2007 |newspaper=The Globe and Mail }}

It can include prolonged periods of solitary confinement, the use of continual illumination to deprive sleep (listed in the Geneva Convention on Basic Human Rights, 1949) often in detention centers outside the control of the prison authorities, including Section 209 of Evin Prison.

Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special human rights reporter in Iran, mentioned in a statement that human rights activist Vahid Asghari was psychologically tortured by means of long-term detention in solitary confinement and with threats to arrest, torture or rape his family members. He was also reportedly tortured with severe beatings for the purpose of eliciting confessions.{{cite web| url=http://www.bcrgroup.us/vahid-asghari-was-sentenced-to-18-years-imprisonment.html |title=Vahid Asghari was beaten to make confess | publisher= Human Rights Group in US |website= bcrgroup.us |access-date=2019-09-10}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/united-nations-reports/un-reports/1000000196-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-13-september-2012.html |title=United Nations Report |website= IranHRDC.org |access-date=2015-07-06 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150702070815/http://www.iranhrdc.org/english/human-rights-documents/united-nations-reports/un-reports/1000000196-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-islamic-republic-of-iran-13-september-2012.html |archive-date=2015-07-02 |url-status=dead}}

A 2004 Amnesty International report documented the use of white torture on Amir Fakhravar by the Revolutionary Guards, the first known example of white torture in Iran.{{Cite news |first=Sarah |last= Baxter |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2189887,00.html |title= Fugitive pleads with US to 'liberate' Iran |newspaper=The Sunday Times |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080211110748/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2189887,00.html |date=May 21, 2006 |archive-date=February 11, 2008 |access-date=March 10, 2007 }} It states that "his cells had no windows, and the walls and his clothes were white. His meals consisted of white rice on white plates. To use the toilet, he had to put a white piece of paper under the door. He was forbidden to speak, and the guards reportedly wore shoes that muffled sound".{{cite web| publisher=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; United States Department of State| url= https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78852.htm| title= Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Iran in 2006| date= March 6, 2007| website= state.gov| access-date= May 7, 2024}}{{cite web | first= Cathy | last= McCann| title= Student/Journalist Ill-treated in Jail | url= http://www.nearinternational.org/alerts/iran1320040317000000en.php |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070928055539/http://www.nearinternational.org/alerts/iran1320040317000000en.php| archive-date=2007-09-28| publisher= NEAR International| date= March 17, 2004| access-date= May 7, 2024}}{{Cite news |first=Eli |last=Lake |url=https://www.nysun.com/foreign/iranian-dissident-to-seek-support-for-opposition/32367/ |title=Iranian Dissident to Seek Support For Opposition |newspaper=The New York Sun |date=May 9, 2006 |access-date=August 14, 2021 |archive-date= August 14, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210814010632/https://www.nysun.com/foreign/iranian-dissident-to-seek-support-for-opposition/32367/ |url-status=dead }} Upon his arrival in the US, Fakhravar confirmed this report in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network.{{cn|date=February 2021}}

In a telephone call to the Human Rights Watch in 2004, the Iranian journalist Ebrahim Nabavi said:

Since I left Evin, I have not been able to sleep without sleeping pills. It is terrible. The loneliness never leaves you, long after you are 'free.' Every door that is closed on you.... This is why we call it 'white torture.' They get what they want without having to hit you. They know enough about you to control the information that you get: they can make you believe that the president has resigned, that they have your wife, that someone you trust has told them lies about you. You begin to break. And once you break, they have control. And then you begin to confess.{{cite web| url= http://hrw.org/reports/2004/iran0604/5.htm| title= Like the Dead...Crushing of dissidents in Iran| website= hrw.org| publisher= Human Rights Watch |date=June 2004}}

{{see also|Torture in Venezuela}}

According to human rights organizations and other NGOs, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) of the Venezuelan government holds political prisoners in the lower levels of SEBIN's headquarters, which has been deemed by government officials La Tumba "The Tomb".{{cite news|date=2015|title=Un calabozo macabro|agency=Univision|url=http://huelladigital.univisionnoticias.com/venezuela-los-rostros-de-la-represion/category/la-tumba/|access-date=28 July 2015}}{{cite web|title=Statement of Santiago A. Canton Executive Director, RFK Partners for Human Rights Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights|url=http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/031715_Canton_Testimony.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150729035041/http://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/031715_Canton_Testimony.pdf|archive-date=July 29, 2015|access-date=29 July 2015|website=United States Senate}} The cells are {{convert|2|by|3|m|spell=in|sp=us}} with a cement bed, white walls, and security barriers between one another so that there is no interaction between prisoners. Such conditions have caused prisoners to become very ill, but they are denied medical treatment. Bright lights in the cells are kept on so prisoners lose their sense of time and the temperature is below freezing, with the only sounds heard being from the nearby Caracas Metro trains. Reports of torture in La Tumba, specifically white torture, are also common, with some prisoners attempting to commit suicide.{{cite news|date=25 July 2015|title=Political protesters are left to rot in Venezuela's secretive underground prison|agency=News.com.au|url=http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/political-protesters-are-left-to-rot-in-venezuelas-secretive-underground-prison/story-fnu2pycd-1227457672139|access-date=29 July 2015|archive-date=21 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151021131605/http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/political-protesters-are-left-to-rot-in-venezuelas-secretive-underground-prison/story-fnu2pycd-1227457672139|url-status=dead}} Such conditions according to the NGO Justice and Process are to make prisoners plead guilty to the crimes that they are accused of.

• German artist Gregor Schneider based his room design of "{{lang|de|weiße Folter}}" ({{lit|white torture}}) on this idea.{{Cite web |date=2013-12-02 |title=Visual Arts - Exhibitions and Artist Portraits - Goethe-Institut |url=http://www.goethe.de/kue/bku/kpa/en2192661.htm |access-date=2023-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202222437/http://www.goethe.de/kue/bku/kpa/en2192661.htm |archive-date=2013-12-02 }}ARTSGATE, [http://www.artsgate.net/us/actu.asp News], March 17, 2007.
• The Brave (TV series) Episode 10 "Desperate Measures" January 8, 2018. A team member is held in an Iranian black site for interrogation. The room is all white, as is her and the guards clothing and the minimal furniture. The interrogator explains it is intended to cause sensory deprivation, and that bits of color will be added as she begins to cooperate.{{Cite web|title=Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/deangeorgaris/status/943675669204033536|access-date=2021-11-22|website=Twitter|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=The Brave – Desperate Measures|date=15 January 2018 |url=http://starrymag.com/the-brave-desperate-measures/|access-date=2021-11-22}}
• In the 2022 Indian film, Rorschach, the protagonist Luke Antony is subjected to white room torture in Dubai Prison.

{{Reflist|2}}

Category:Mind control

Category:Psychological torture techniques

Category:Torture in Iran

Category:Torture in Venezuela