Iran: Political prisoners won't be cowed into silence

Incarcerated Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was brutally beaten by guards at Tehran's notorious Evin prison, according to Mohammadi's family and lawyer. Mohammadi and other female inmates had reportedly been staging a protest against the death penalty on Tuesday, August 6, when prison authorities violently dispersed the demonstration.

"All prisoners have the right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest, they must not be brutally beaten for this," Mohammadi's husband Taghi Rahmani, who confirmed the incident had occurred, told DW.

Several prisoners reportedly lost consciousness during the attack. Although some injured women were bandaged after being examined by the prison doctor, they were denied adequate medical care.

Mai Sato, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, has expressed concern about Mohammadi and her fellow inmates. Sato told DW she and other UN human rights experts have called for Mohammadi's immediate release. Sato also demands that Mohammadi and the other women receive proper medical care and has said she will continue to monitor the case. Iranian prison authorities, meanwhile, deny that prison guards physically abused female inmates.

No contact with her family

Mohammadi was handed a ten-year jail sentence for peacefully campaigning for human rights, including the abolition of the death penalty in Iran. The activist has a health condition, suffering from constricted heart vessels. This health problem is recorded in her medical records, says Mohammadi's husband, who lives in exile in Paris with their 18-year-old children Kiana and Ali Rahmani.

The twins left Iran in 2015 and have not seen their mother since. They have not heard their mother's voice in nine months, as Iranian prison authorities deny Mohammadi the right to make phone calls.

Fighting 'for the enlightenment of society'

"Narges and other courageous political prisoners in Iran are campaigning for the enlightenment of society," the honorary president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Abdolkarim Lahiji, told DW. "They are a thorn in the side of the security apparatus; authorities are trying to break them," the head of the organization, which was founded in 1922, said.

Paris-based laywer Lahiji has spent more than five decades campaigning for human rights in Iran.

"Political prisoners and human rights activists in Iran need our solidarity," Lahiji told DW. "We call on independent organizations to investigate the incidents in Iranian prisons and hold those responsible to account."

70 women incarcerated at notorious prison

Lahiji and 42 other human rights activists and organizations published an open letter expressing solidarity with female political prisoners in Iran in several European newspapers, including French daily Liberation and German daily Tagesspiegel on Monday, August 19. It calls for an end to the repression and an international investigation.

Around 70 women of different faiths and generations are currently incarcerated as political prisoners in Tehran's Evin prison.

"These women have been arrested and unjustly imprisoned for standing up for freedom and human rights in Iran," the letter states.

Weekly protests against the death penalty

Female inmates have been protesting against Iran's death penalty every Tuesday for several months now. Last year, 853 people were executed in Iran, according to human rights organization Amnesty International — the highest number since 2015. Capital punishments have continued this year, with at least 274 executions carried out in the first half of 2024, according to human rights organizations.

One of the last known executions took place on August 6, the very day the women's protest was protest brutally suppressed at Evin prison. They had protested the execution of Reza Rasaei, a member of Iran's Kurdish minority, who was killed at Dizel Abad prison in Kermanshah province.

Rasaei was executed without warning

The 34-year-old had been arrested amid Iran's nationwide "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests. They had been triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022. The young woman died in police custody after being arrested and beaten for not following Iran's mandatory hijab law.

Rasaei and ten other protesters were accused of involvement in the killing of a member of the Iranian security forces, an allegation Rasaei had consistently denied. Neither Rasaei, nor his family and legal counsel were informed of his looming execution, says Amnesty International.

This article was translated from German