Sarah Shourd is an American multimedia journalist, author, playwright, former JSK Knight Fellow, and internationally known advocate against the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons. In 2009-10 she was held as a political hostage in Iran's Evin Prison for 410 days under accusations of espionage. She subsequently coauthored a book about the experience with her fellow hostages Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer. On Sept 14, 2010, the Iranian government released Shourd to the care of the Omani government.
Iranian trial and imprisonment, and calls for release
In July, 2009, Shourd was on a weekend trip with her then-boyfriend Shane Bauer and their friend Josh Fattal—who was visiting from USA. Shourd and Bauer lived in Damascus, Syria back then. On July 31, 2009, Shourd was captured by Iranian border police while hiking around a popular tourist destination, Ahmad Awa, in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was considered an American tourist-friendly destination. The soldiers accused them of illegally crossing into Iran and arrested them on the spot. They were then driven to Evin Prison, in Tehran, where Shourd spend 410 days in solitary confinement in the political ward resulting her in suffering from extreme depression and anxiety. The arrest of Shourd and her two friends led to a global efforts campaigning for their release. Amnesty International also called on the Iranian authorities and demanded for the release of Shourd along with Bauer and Fattal. In 2010, Iran said they would release Shourd owing to her poor health condition after holding her more than a year in jail after a payment of bail of $500,000. She was finally released in September 2010 after a deal was brokered by the Swiss embassy that represents the US interests in Iran owing to the absence of any diplomatic ties between USA and Iran since 1979. Post her release, She stated that she was released because she was a woman and in solitary confinement and that her health condition had nothing to do with it. Shourd and her family publicly thanked Oman for playing a crucial role in making arrangements for securing her bail. She also thanked Ayatollah Khomeini and President Ahmadinejad for her compassionate release from detention because she feared that an absence of such a statement, Bauer and Fattal would not be free. She was officially indicted of espionage and illegal entry by Iran. The then President of USABarack Obama also issued a statement that he was pleased that she was released and was being reunited with her family.
Personal
Bauer proposed to Shourd while in the prison and the latter accepted. They got married on May 5, 2012 in California. They were subsequently divorced in 2019.
As a journalist, Shourd has published on a variety of platforms, such as the New York Times, Mother Jones, Reuters, Daily Beast, Salon, San Francisco Magazine, SF Chronicle, and many more. Shourd wrote, produced, and later directed a play on the subject of solitary confinement, The BOX, which premiered at Z Space in San Francisco in 2016, where it was directed by Cuban playwright Michael John Garcés. The play is based on the two-year investigation Shourd conducted while working with watchdog organization Solitary Watch and as a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for Law and Society, wherein she collected over 75 testimonies from prisoners kept in isolation in prisons across the U.S. In 2019, she was awarded the J S Knight fellowship at Stanford University. She now works as an independent journalist, social engagement artist, and human rights strategy consultant in Oakland, California.
Books
In 2014, Shourd co-authored a memoir titled A Sliver of Light with Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt in 2014 detailing their experience of being arrested and kept in solitary confinement in Iran under charges of espionage. At Stanford, Shourd collaborated on writing, drawing, and publishing a graphic novel, Flying Kites: A Story about the 2013 California Hunger Strike. in 2016, She also co-edited an anthology of stories of solitary confinement of incarcerated Americans titled 'Hell is a very small place- voices from solitary confinement published by New Press.'
Awards
In 2016 she was honored with GLIDE Memorial Church's Hero Award for her work writing and advocating against solitary confinement. She has also received multiple grants and fellowships from several institutions including Blue Mountain Center, CA Endowment, Entrekin Foundation, Further Foundation, Mesa Refuge, Neda Nobari Foundation, Shuttleworth Foundation, Vital Funds Project, Wattis Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation and more.
