Sarah Shourd, Former Hostage in Iran, Recounts Trauma of Re-entry

Three Iranian-Americans released by Iran in a prisoner swap over the weekend are receiving medical attention in Germany before returning to the United States. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, a native of Marin County, former Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini were imprisoned in Iran on unrelated charges. U.S. diplomats negotiated their release, along with the release of a fourth American who chose to stay in Iran, in exchange for the release of seven Iranian-Americans imprisoned in the United States.

The U.S. has participated in multiple prisoner exchanges in the last decade, including a 2014 exchange with the Taliban in Afghanistan for prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl, but this is only the second time Iran has engaged in a prisoner swap since the suspension of U.S.-Iran diplomatic negotiations in 1979.

In 2009, the Iranian government arrested Americans Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who were hiking in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq and mistakenly crossed the border into Iran. Shourd, who worked in Damascus at the time of the arrest, was held in solitary confinement in a prison in Tehran for the entirety of her incarceration. U.S. diplomats secured Shourd's release in September 2010 after Oman agreed to serve as a third-party negotiator with Taliban representatives. Bauer and Fattal were released in 2011.

Shourd, who now lives in Oakland, told KQED's Mina Kim on Tuesday that this weekend's prisoner exchange is an "incredible triumph of diplomacy," and that she had hoped the Americans' release would coincide with last week's lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, as stipulated in the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration.

"You never know until the very last minute," Shourd told Kim, describing the uncertainty that friends and family of the imprisoned Americans experienced as they waited for confirmation that their loved ones had made it out.

Shourd said she can't predict exactly how Rezaian, Hekmati and Abedini will handle acclimation to life outside prison. "For 410 days in solitary confinement, all I wanted was to be with other people," she remembers. But after her release, the stimulus of the world was completely overwhelming. Even making eye contact caused her physical pain.

Shourd paced constantly in her cell and suffered from insomnia. Getting her frenetic nervous system back to a "new normal" after her release took extreme effort. The struggle, however, also yielded some positive impact on her life.

"It's a process of transforming that negativity into creativity," she said, explaining that her experience in prison led her to advocate against solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Connecting with other survivors of solitary confinement, she said, helped her process her experience and avoid blaming herself for her imprisonment.

Though she is celebrating the release of the American prisoners, Shourd noted that the Iranians released by the U.S. government this weekend also deserve American attention. All seven of the Iranians released in the prisoner exchange were nonviolent offenders, held for violating economic sanctions against Iran.

"These restrictions have taken a very heavy toll on the Iranian people," Shourd told KQED. "So, this really is a  moment of joy on both sides."