In one of the darkest periods of my life, when I was working as a journalist in Iran, I was sent to a secret prison in Tehran. I was held for weeks in solitary confinement in a cell barely larger than a grave. My interrogator beat me, humiliated me, and repeatedly threatened to arrest my family and friends. The light in my cell was always on. I had to relieve myself in the same plastic container from which I ate. The stench was so overpowering that I vomited often. Through the pain and