This is speaking of Faith's unheard cuts. I'm Christa Tippett. You're listening to my

unedited conversation with Darius Rajali. He's a professor of political science at Reed College

in Oregon and is one of the world's leading experts on torture. I spoke with him on May 15, 2009

from the Studios of American Public Media in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was in a private recording

studio in Portland, Oregon. This interview is included in our program The Long Shadow of Torture.

Download the MP3 of that produced show at speakingoffaith.org.

Well, thank you. Likewise, what's the weather like over there?

I don't know. It's kind of trying to become summery, but it's cold in the mornings.

What the sun is shining. My flowers are growing. Oh, yeah. What season is it bulbs or is it something else now?

I've got tulips and I bought a new house last summer and I don't know everything that's in my garden,

but the person there who was there before me did a beautiful job in planting perennials.

Oh, I understand that problem. Well, problem gift, I guess. When I bought my house, I bought it

in the fall. I had no idea what was going to stop. I wasn't planning on. Well, I moved in in August

and a lot of things in Minnesota are already dead by then. So. And then you're compelled to be a

gardener. Exactly. But I have a much better beginning, it's a more promising beginning than it.

That's true. That's true. Anyway, so. Yeah. Well, I want you to say your name for me just so I

it deris and then how do you say? You do say, okay, I do. I do. Is that really the Iranian way?

No, of course not. It wouldn't be more like.

The Risalee or something like that. Right. My full name would be W. Shrej Ali.

All right. All right. I won't try bad.

Yeah. No, it's my mother gave me Janus face names so that they'd work in both cultures and

I suppose a lot of people say derias. Right. But that's just the French pronunciation. British Indian

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