The Islamic Republic uses human beings—schoolgirls, political prisoners, protesters, and dual nationals—as leverage to control its own population and to gain bargaining power in Iran-US relations.
Several patterns are well-documented:
Disappeared activists
Disappeared activists like Bita Shafiei and detained family members, such as her mother, are used to intimidate local communities and deter future protests. Hengaw’s reporting on her case shows a combination of dawn raids, IRGC intelligence involvement, and incommunicado detention, all consistent with a strategy of making an example of activists.
(Sources: Hengaw on Bita’s current arres t- Nov 2025, Iran International on her earlier arrest & torture – Aug 2023, Amnesty “Iran: Respect families’ right to commemorate loved ones killed during uprising without reprisals on one-year anniversary”)
Schoolgirl poisonings
Since late November 2022, more than 100 girls’ schools across at least 20 provinces have been hit by suspected chemical/gas attacks. Thousands of schoolgirls have reported symptoms like coughing, breathing difficulty and numbness; many were hospitalised.
UN and Amnesty say many parents removed their daughters from school out of fear, while authorities dismissed many symptoms as “stress” or “mental contagion” and failed, for months, to carry out effective investigations or publish findings.
(Sources: Amnesty “Millions of schoolgirls at risk of poisoning”, UN human rights experts (OHCHR) “Iran: Deliberate poisoning of schoolgirls further evidence of continuous violence against women and girls”)
Mass executions and unfair trials
As described by Amnesty and the UN Fact-Finding Mission, function not only as punishment for individuals but also as a warning to society at large that protest and dissent may carry the ultimate cost.
(Sources: Amnesty “‘Don’t let them kill us’: Iran’s relentless execution crisis since the 2022 uprising”, United Nations Iran: UN Fact-Finding Mission alarmed by surge in repression and extraordinary spike in executions)
Hostage diplomacy against Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals
Hostage diplomacy against Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals is explicitly recognised by the US government and detailed by the Washington Institute: the US warns that such citizens have been “wrongfully detained—taken hostage” for months and years, and policy experts describe how these detainees are used in prisoner swaps or negotiations.
(Sources: Iran International, The Washington Institute)
Taken together, these strands show that people themselves become tools:
- domestically, to enforce obedience;
- internationally, to gain leverage in Iran-US relations and related nuclear talks, sanctions discussions, and regional security bargains.
This is exactly the world of hybrid repression and bargaining that Shadows of Tehran explores in fiction—one where the line between “political prisoner,” “hostage,” and “bargaining chip” is often a matter of context, not principle.
Who Is Bita Shafiei, and What Does Her Disappearance Tell Us About Iran-US Relations?
Bita Shafiei is a 19-year-old Iranian activist whose arrest and disappearance show how Iran’s security apparatus can erase a person from the official system—while remaining an accepted counterpart in Iran-US relations.
According to Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish-led Iranian human-rights NGO, Bita Shafiei, daughter of civil activist Maryam Abbasi Niko, is a resident of Shahin Shahr in Isfahan province.
Hengaw reports that she was arrested by security forces in the early hours of 13 November 2025 in Khorramshahr and taken to an unknown location; her current whereabouts and legal status are undisclosed.
(Source: Hengaw – “Bita Shafiei arrested in Khorramshahr after mother’s earlier detention”)
Hengaw adds that three days earlier, IRGC Intelligence Organization agents raided the family home and detained her mother, Maryam Abbasi Niko, who had previously faced blasphemy charges over her activism and been acquitted.
Hengaw’s report also notes that Bita was previously arrested and tortured in 2022 in connection with protests about attacks on girls’ schools.
There is no public charge sheet, no trial date, no officially acknowledged prison. As far as the state is concerned, a 19-year-old woman can simply fall off the legal map.
That is what “internal security” looks like on the Iranian side of Iran-US relations.
What Happened in the Poisonings of Iranian Schoolgirls, and Why Does It Matter Now?
Between late 2022 and 2023, suspected chemical attacks on girls’ schools across Iran created a climate of fear. UN human-rights experts reported that the first cases appeared in November 2022 in Qom and that 91 schools in 20 provinces were affected, criticising the authorities for failing to protect students or investigate effectively.
Amnesty International warned in April 2023 that the rights to education, health and life of “millions of schoolgirls” were at risk after thousands were poisoned and hospitalised in chemical attacks on girls’ schools since November 2022, while authorities dismissed symptoms as “stress” or “excitement” and failed to properly investigate or stop the attacks.
(Source:Amnesty – “Iran: Millions of schoolgirls at risk of poisoning”)
The European Parliament passed a resolution on 16 March 2023, condemning the attacks and criticising the authorities’ failure to protect girls or properly investigate the poisonings.
(Source: EUR LEX)
Hengaw’s report on Bita Shafiei links her earlier arrest and torture to protests against these schoolgirl poisonings, placing her disappearance within a broader pattern of girls and young women treated as security threats for speaking out.
This matters for Iran-US relations because it shows the human-rights environment in which US diplomats are negotiating with Tehran: a state accused by the UN and EU of failing to stop or investigate mass attacks on schoolgirls while simultaneously seeking sanctions relief and nuclear guarantees.
How Are Iranian Sons Caught Between the Regime’s Machinery and Life in the United States?
Iranian sons are often caught between compulsory service in the regime’s security apparatus and the possibility—or trauma—of leaving, which is the world Nick Berg writes about in Shadows of Tehran.
Inside Iran, military service is compulsory for men, and the most powerful institution in that security structure is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has its own ground forces, intelligence arm and overseas Quds Force.
The IRGC has been heavily sanctioned and designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation, and it plays a central role in policing dissent and running prisons and detention facilities.
(Source: U.S. National Counterterrorism Center)
For many young men, that means their path goes through the very institutions that enforce the regime’s repression—whether they like it or not.
Some stay in the system and build careers; others try to get out, joining the diaspora and, in some cases, Western militaries or security services.
Why Are Iranian-Americans and Dual Nationals Caught in the Middle of Iran-US Relations?
Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals are central to Iran–US relations: Iran detains them as leverage, and the US warns against travel. The US State Department’s Iran information page (21 January 2025) states:
“Do not travel to Iran for any reason. U.S. citizens in Iran face serious dangers. They have been kidnapped and wrongfully arrested. Some have been held for years on false charges, subjected to psychological torture, and even sentenced to death.”
(Source: US State Department)
The “Do Not Travel to Iran” advisory warns that Americans, including Iranian-Americans, have been wrongfully detained as hostages and urges them not to go. The Washington Institute likewise describes a pattern of Iran taking U.S. citizens hostage and using them in negotiations.
(Source: Washington Institute – “Iran Has Taken More U.S. Citizens Hostage. It’s Time to Shred the Regime’s Playbook.”)
Together, these sources show that wrongful detention of Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals is a systemic risk in Iran-US relations, turning everyday choices—funerals, weddings, final visits—into calculations about state power and hostage diplomacy.
What Is Happening in Today’s Iran-US Nuclear Talks, and How Does Repression Inside Iran Compare?
Iran and the United States are engaged in indirect nuclear talks mediated by Oman, but the human-rights situation inside Iran—executions, arbitrary detentions, schoolgirl poisonings—has worsened in parallel, not improved.
In April 2025, Reuters reported that Iran and the US held indirect talks in Muscat, Oman, focused on de-escalating regional tensions and placing limits on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for some sanctions relief; both sides described the discussions as “constructive” and agreed to resume talks.
(Source: Reuters – “Iran, US start talks in Oman under shadow of regional conflict”)
Further Reuters and AP reporting in May and June 2025 details the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds of nuclear talks in Oman, with Omani officials confirming continued mediation.
(Sources: Reuters, AP)
While these Iran-US nuclear talks continue, Amnesty International and the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran have documented a sharp deterioration in human rights since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests:
- Amnesty’s April 2024 briefing, “‘Don’t let them kill us’: Iran’s relentless execution crisis since the 2022 uprising,” recorded at least 853 executions in 2023, more than 70% of known executions worldwide, and concluded that the death penalty was being used to crush dissent and marginalised groups.
- The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, established by the Human Rights Council in 2022, reported in March 2024 and March 2025 that Iranian authorities committed widespread and systematic violations, including unlawful killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence, many of which amount to crimes against humanity in the context of the post-Mahsa Amini protests.
The factual picture is clear: renewed Iran-US relations at the diplomatic level have not produced an easing of repression inside Iran.
Execution numbers are at a long-term high; the Fact-Finding Mission speaks of crimes against humanity; schoolgirl poisonings remain inadequately addressed; and activists like Bita are still being disappeared.
How Does the Islamic Republic Use Human Beings as Leverage in Iran-US Relations?
Iran has developed a pattern of detaining Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals on vague security charges and then using them as leverage in Iran-US relations, turning family visits into serious political risks.
In August 2025, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that at least four American citizens of Iranian origin were being held in Iran after travelling to visit family, underscoring that these cases are now routine rather than rare.
(Source: HRANA – “Iran is holding at least 4 American citizens, rights groups and families say”)
Rights groups have also documented the incommunicado detention of US citizen/dual national Afarin Mohajer in Evin prison after her arrest at Tehran’s airport, and the 10-year sentence for Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh on charges of “collaborating with the US government” after his return to Iran.
(Sources: Hengaw – Afarin Mohajer, RFE/RL – Afarin Mohajer)
The US government now explicitly warns that Americans, including Iranian-Americans and other dual nationals not to travel to Iran under any circumstances.
Policy analysis by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy describes this pattern as hostage diplomacy, arguing that Iran “has taken more U.S. citizens hostage” and uses them to extract concessions and secure prisoner swaps.
EU diplomats have similarly referred to a “state-sponsored policy of hostage-taking” in debates over sanctions on Iranian officials.
(Source: Reuters – EU sanctions over citizen detentions)
For Iranian-Americans, Iran-US relations are not an abstract dance of envoys and communiqués; they are a quiet risk calculation before every ticket is booked.
Families have to ask whether a hug in Tehran or Isfahan is worth the possibility of interrogation, confiscated passports, or years spent in a cell that doubles as a negotiating chip.
What looks from the outside like “normalising relations” can, for them, feel like walking into a system that has openly turned dual nationals into leverage.
Each new case – another journalist sentenced, another visitor taken at the airport, another HRANA line about “at least four American citizens of Iranian origin” in custody – reinforces that message.
Over time, the effect is not just on those who are arrested, but on the whole diaspora: ordinary trips, funerals and family visits are quietly recast as potential moves in someone else’s bargaining game, even before a single suitcase is packed.
How Can We Talk About Cases Like Bita’s Without Turning Them into Propaganda?
We can talk about cases like Bita’s responsibility by sticking to verifiable sources, naming uncertainty honestly, and resisting the urge to reduce real people to symbols in our own arguments.
From a factual standpoint, everything we can say about Bita in this article comes from Hengaw’s English-language report and related human-rights documentation, not from social media rumours or partisan campaigns. We know her age, home city, the date and place of arrest, the role of IRGC intelligence, her mother’s parallel detention, and her prior arrest and torture over schoolgirl poisoning protests—nothing more, nothing less.
The same applies to schoolgirl poisonings (UN and Amnesty), executions (Amnesty and UN FFM), and hostage diplomacy (US State Dept, Washington Institute, Reuters).
Three simple rules follow:
- Anchor every strong claim in a checkable source. For example, if you say “thousands of schoolgirls were poisoned,” you can link straight to Amnesty’s urgent action on millions of schoolgirls at risk of poisoning.
- Admit what you don’t know. We do not know exactly where Bita is being held or what specific charges are being prepared; we only know the pattern from similar cases of political prisoners and disappeared activists documented by human-rights groups.
- Refuse to use people as props. Sharing Bita’s story only to score points in unrelated domestic debates reproduces the regime’s own logic of treating individuals as instruments.
This is also where Nick Berg’s Shadows of Tehran fits: the novel’s refusal to offer simple heroes and villains mirrors the ethical stance of good human-rights reporting—complex, documented, and wary of easy narratives.
What Can Ordinary Readers Actually Do in the Face of These Iran-US Relations?
Ordinary readers cannot rewrite Iran-US relations, but they can decide how they remember, what they amplify, and which sources they support.
Some practical actions:
- Remember names and cases. Say and write “Where is Bita Shafiei?” and link to Hengaw’s report on her case so others can verify the facts.
- Follow and support credible organisations.
- Use official guidance if you’re in the diaspora. If you or your family are Iranian-American, read the US travel advisory in full before considering any trip; this is literally part of how Iran-US relations now work.
- Choose what you give your attention to. Instead of being overwhelmed by every headline, pick a small set of issues—like Iran human rights, Iranian political prisoners, hostage diplomacy—and follow them in depth via high-quality sources.
If you want to go one step further and explore this world in a different form, Shadows of Tehran offers a fictional but grounded look at how Iran-US relations feel from the inside: for those who flee, those who serve, and those who disappear.
Through Nick Berg’s lens as an Iranian-American, the novel threads together Iran human rights, political prisoners, IRGC power struggles, hostage diplomacy, and the shadow of Iran protests into one continuous story instead of separate headlines.
It’s where schoolgirl poisonings, covert deals, hybrid warfare and life in exile stop being abstract topics and become the everyday reality of people trying to survive between Tehran and Washington.
What Do Iran-US Relations Demand From the People Who Live With Their Consequences?
In communiqués and press conferences, Iran-US relations are framed as strategy: leverage, de-escalation, sanctions relief, “constructive” talks in Muscat or Rome.
But the cost of every move is paid by people who will never see those rooms. A new round of nuclear negotiations can happen on the same day a 19-year-old like Bita vanishes into incommunicado detention, a school corridor fills with gas, or an Iranian-American is pulled aside at Tehran airport and simply doesn’t come home.
On paper, it’s foreign policy. In real life, it looks like torture, empty chairs at family tables, and parents who stop sleeping through the night.
For the diaspora, especially Iranian-Americans, this relationship doesn’t just shape news cycles; it redraws the map of their lives.
Every time Iran detains another dual national, or Washington adds another warning line to its travel advisory, “going back” becomes less about nostalgia and more about risk management.
People like Nick Berg learn to carry entire branches of their family as ghosts: voices on a bad connection, blurred faces on encrypted calls, stories that might be dangerous to repeat.
Loving someone in Iran means always asking what your next visit, your next phone call, your next book might cost them.
That is the real intersection of high-level diplomacy and human life.
While officials talk in guarded phrases about progress and red lines, ordinary people are forced to live with the outcomes: missing daughters, sons in exile, parents who may never see their children again.
If there is any point to telling these stories—Bita’s, Afarin’s, Reza’s, Nick’s—it is to insist that Iran-US relations are not just about states and centrifuges. They are about whether families will ever get to live together without calculating the price of a hug.
