allowed to call home last Saturday for only the second time in their 15 months of captivity, and informed their families that they have received only two of the letters the families send each day.
Shane Bauer and John Fattal said only two letters had been delivered to them in the 2 1/2 months since the third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was freed. The 28-year-old men also said they had received none of the books their families have been sending them to read.
The two calls lasted about five minutes each. Cindy Hickey, Bauer’s mother, said her son sounded “strong but frustrated.… He said, ‘I have no idea what’s going on with my case, what’s happening with it.’” Shourd, who lives in the San Francisco area, had arrived at the Fattal home near Philadelphia on Friday for a short visit, and was able to speak briefly to Fattal during his call. But she was not able to talk to Bauer, her fiancé. Hickey and Laura Fattal said they believe, based on the calls, that their sons have become even more isolated since Shourd was released in September.
In addition to the dearth of mail and books, they reported getting less time in the prison’s exercise yard. “The books and letters are important,” Laura Fattal said. “This is their lifeline — they exercise and they read.” Each family makes a point of sending a letter each day. The families had no direct prior warning about the phone calls, but were on what Laura Fattal called “high alert” after officials with the Iranian mission to the United Nations indicated early in November that phone calls might be pending. Hickey said she kept her cell phone with her at all times as well as a notebook of things she wanted to talk about. Laura Fattal said her family made sure there was always someone around to answer the home phone when it rang. It was only the second time Bauer and Fattal called home, the first being last March. The last direct contact family members had with Bauer and Fattal was in May, when Hickey, Laura Fattal and Shourd’s mother were allowed to visit their children in Iran.