NCRI – Women political prisoners in Ward209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison are kept in inhumane conditions and are subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture. The cells in this ward are overloaded with prisoners following the transfer of women and girls arrested in the course of nationwide uprising.
The henchmen and the torturers tell the prisoners that they would deal with them in such a way that no other women would ever dare to come out for protest.
The cells lack a ventilation system and in the summer heat prisoners find it difficult to breath in the cells and often suffer from headaches, nausea and respiratory problems.
Since the prisoners are only permitted to use restrooms a limited number of times, they are having problems with their kidneys, bladder and digestive systems.
Mahsa Naderi, a 19 year old student, still continues to remain in a solitary confinement in this ward on the orders of Saeed Sheikhan, an infamous henchman at Ward 209, despite having faced trial. Due to prison circumstances, Ms. Naderi is now suffering from various health defects and is deprived from medical treatment.
Fatemeh Ziai, 52, who has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), is in critical condition and after the passing of more than 5months, her status is still indeterminate. Henchman Alavi, another torturer in the prison, has told that she is not to leave the cell alive and if you die you will make it more convenient for both of us. Interrogators of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security prevent Ms. Ziai’s relatives to visit her.
Other female prisoners, including Atefeh Nabavi, Azmoudeh, Babakhani, and Shiva Nazar-Ahari, are being held in the same ward. Ms. Nazar-Ahari’s situation is still unknown despite the passing of 57days. Her family has not succeeded in visiting her during this time and it has been a while since they could last talk on the phone.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran calls on all human rights and women’s rights organs and authorities to condemn the extensive and arbitrary arrests as well as the deplorable conditions of Iranian prisons and invites the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur for Violence against Women to send investigative delegations to prisons in Iran.
Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 15, 2009
