Qasr Garden Museum

Qasr prison is no longer a prison. It is now open to public as a museum. Photos of many political prisoners, women and men are framed on the wall at the entrance. The cells and the corridors have been kept as they were in the past; The woman jail, the small solitary jail and the cell for those who would be kept for one night before their execution, same with the second Pahlavi’s political prison and the yard behind it. The beautiful garden decorated with modern and thought provoking artworks and the restaurant makes Qasr museum a pleasant place to visit. But above all, the museum is a reminder. Reminder of all the Khiam and Qasr political prisons around the world and reminder of the ideals that those prisoners sacrificed their life for.

• Background information

  After Reza Shah Pahlavi took over the throne and founded judicial court, he decided to turn the remaining of the Qajar palace into a modern jail for the oppositions. The prison was founded with 192 cells. And can’t you guess who was the first prisoner. There is a famous proverb in Persian that says: “Never dig a well for others, in which you may fall.” The first captive was Brigadier Dargahi the chief of police who was put in Qasr prison exactly two days after he had participated in the opening ceremony of the jail with Reza Shah. Afterward, more than 800 prisoners would be locked up each time and some were killed there, among them many big names like Teymurtash, Bozorg Alawi, the heads of Bakhtiari tribe, and Farrokhi Yazdi, famous Iranian revolutionary poet and politician who was then murdered there by air injection. Even Lawrence of Arabia had been held in Qasr for a very short time. With the increase of the political suppression during the second Pahlavi, the plan for a separated political prison was put in order and kept then and there the new wave of oppositions against Pahlavi’s rule among them Ayatullah Khomeini, Ayatullah Khamenei, Navab Safawi, Morteza Motahhari, Ayatullah Taleqani and many others. It was the first prison which was liberated by the revolutionaries and the political prisoners were welcomed by their families and other people with joy and tears.