Terrible Conditions at the Women’s Ward of Rajaei Prison

The poor condition of Rajaei Shahr Prison in terms of sanitation, lack of security and restive inmates has caused problems for the female detainees.

A group of families of female political prisoners have written to the head of the judiciary requesting that the poor conditions of the women’s ward of Rajaei Shahr Prison be improved.

According to the Human Rights House of Iran, in the past 2 years, 3 rapes have taken place in the prison, which have led to murder but the authorities have not confronted the involved inmates.

In the previous 2 months, a prisoner who had killed an inmate has raped an old prisoner leading to her death. Even though she has committed such crime twice, she is still imprisoned with other female prisoners and has been transferred to a cell located in front of other female political prisoners disrupting their security.

In case of the restive inmates, several rapes have taken place for drug related problems in the past several weeks.

Rape is problem in both female and male prisons but the authorities have constantly ignored the problem.

Motahareh Bahrami-Haghighi, Shabnam Madadzadeh, Reyhaneh Haj-Ebrahim-Dabagh, Maryam Akbari-Monfared, Masoumeh Yavari, Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi and Kobra Banazadeh-Amiri are among the female prisoners of conscious in Rajaei Shahr Prison.

The full text of the letter is the following

Head of the Judiciary

Dear Mr. Larijani,

We are writing this letter at a time when, after months of trying to improve the conditions of our imprisoned loves ones, our efforts have not borne any fruit. We are a group of families of woman political prisoners that are held in Rajaei Shahr prison [in Karaj, 30 miles west of Tehran], and considering their terrible conditions, we wish to ask you to send a representative to the prison and improve their conditions.

At least ten female political prisoners are currently held in Rajaei Shahr, while the same ward also has 200 other female inmates who have committed such offenses as murder, narcotics trafficking, and robbery. Despite the large population, there is only one bath in the ward, and even then the water flow is typically cut off for many hours, so it can be used only a few hours a day. The prisoners in Rajaei Shahr have access to warm water only 30 minutes a day and must use cold water to bathe the rest of the time.

Another problem that worries the families of the political prisoners is that there are many restive inmates there that have murdered other prisoners. Immoral acts occur in the prison frequently, and younger prisoners have been raped and then murdered. Currently, there is a prisoner who is being held next to the women’s ward who murdered three other inmates after raping them. This has caused such concern among the prisoners that when any wants to take a bath, two others stand by as bodyguards.

Dear Mr. Larijani,

The tragic situation in the prisons which are supposed to be under the control of the judiciary indicates the neglect of the authorities. Have our loved ones who have been imprisoned for having different opinions, been given a gradual death sentence? Isn’t what is occurring in the women’s ward of Rajaei Shahr Prison a human tragedy?

Based on which rules, should the 200 prisoners be provided with a single bathe? Based on which laws, should our prisoners be deprived of hot water? Based on which regulations, should our prisoners be fearful of an attack by the criminal inmates? Have they been charged with anything other than “thinking”? Shouldn’t the prisoners be separated based on their type of crime based on the prison regulations?

Dear Mr. Larijani,

While a few days have remained until the Iranian New Year and you are probably planning your vacation, we spend days and nights worrying whether we will be able to meet our women from behind the glasses next week.

If there is still an iota of justice and fairness in the judiciary, please address our request and try to improve the conditions of the women’s ward of Rajaei Shahr jail.

Human Rights House of IRAN