Imprisoned Kurdish woman at risk of losing sight: Amnesty

LOS ANGELES, United States (Kurdistan24) – An international human rights organization warned that a Kurdish woman who has been in an Iranian prison after an unfair trial is in imminent danger of going blind and is denied medical treatment.

Amnesty International (AI) reported that “[Zeinab] Jalalian, who is serving a life sentence imposed after a grossly unfair trial, is at risk of losing her eyesight in prison.”

“The authorities have continued to deny her the specialized medical treatment she needs for a worsening eye condition, including urgent surgery,” AI continued.

In a report published in July, “Health taken hostage: Cruel denial of medical care in Iran’s prisons,” AI documented that in many cases Iran intentionally abuses ailing political prisoners and prisoners of conscious.

The report stated Iran denies medical care to deliberately and cruelly “intimidate, punish or humiliate political prisoners, or to extract forced ‘confessions’ or statements of ‘repentance’ from them.”

Moreover, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) announced in a statement in June that Iran had arbitrarily detained Kurdish political prisoner Jalalian.

“The Working Group urges the [Iranian] Government to ensure that Ms. Jalalian is not subjected to further torture or ill-treatment,” the statement read.

“The Working Group also urges the Government to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding her arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of her rights,” the statement continued.

Also in April, Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and other experts discussed Iran’s human rights violations.

32-year-old Jalalian was engaged in social and political activism, in particular assisting Kurdish women by providing education and social services in Iran and Iraq.

She previously visited an Iranian girls’ high school where she delivered a speech about women’s rights.

On or around March 10, 2008, Jalalian was traveling on a bus from Kermanshah to Sanandaj when she was arrested by four armed Iranian intelligence security officers at Ghazanchi inspection post near Kamyaran.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

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