Iran Ebrat Museum

Lonely Planet review

There is nothing subtle about the Ebrat Museum, a one-time prison of the shah's brutal secret police that now exhibits that brutality with an equal measure of pro-revolution propaganda. The prison is an incongruously attractive building, wings radiating from a circular centre. But what went on here was not attractive at all.

During the 1970s, hundreds of political prisoners - including several prominent clerics and post-revolutionary figures whose names you will recognise from street signs - were held in tiny cells and, in many cases, tortured by the Anti Sabotage Joint Committee, a branch of the despised SAVAK internal security agency. The various functions of the prison are dramatically recreated with waxwork dummies and liberal doses of red paint. The shah's henchmen are invariably depicted wearing neckties (a pro-Western symbol in modern Iran) and looking cruel and brutish (check out the eyebrows). The propaganda element is emphasised by the photos of members of the former royal family prominently displayed throughout - just in case you forgot who was responsible.

Propaganda aside, this prison was undoubtedly a very bad place to end up and the people running it guilty of some heinous crimes. It's just a pity that the abhorrence of torture and politically motivated incarceration expressed here are not shared by the ruling regime; stories from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison are just as horrifying.

All visitors must follow the one hour, 45 minute tour, conducted in Farsi by a former prisoner. Some exhibits have brief explanations in English, though little interpretation is required. The tour includes a film that might not be suitable for young children.