Conscious Coma: Ten Years in an Iranian Prison

In 1975, Mr. Rabhan traveled to Iran as a businessman, where he successfully produced infant formula and children’s clothing. One day in 1980 when he was driving to one of his factories in Tehran, he was arrested, accused of being a spy, and imprisoned without formal charges. His first years were spent largely in solitary confinement. The Iranian officials finally filed charges against Mr. Rabhan in 1988, and he was given a specific sentence for the false charge of being a spy.

"In the beginning, bread was the stuff of my sanity. I ate it, I sculpted with it and bartered the sculptures," Mr. Rabhan says. "It kept me busy, and it kept me sane during the years I was in solitary. Later, I used my survival skills to obtain pens, paints and brushes, which I used to sketch the prisoners I knew during my last five years in prison."

At the end, he was told all was a mistake. He was finally released in 1990.

In August 1990, American David Rabhan walked away from Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran with an incredible story in his head and with two suitcases stuffed with more than 300 sketches of prisoners, who, like himself, were incarcerated for alleged "political" crimes against the Khomeini regime. Together, this story and the illustrations appearing in this book express the triumph of human dignity and spirit.