Rare accounts of life for women inside notorious Iranian prison

Crouched alone on the ground, in a tiny, windowless cell, Nasim might hear what seemed like different prisoners being tortured. The guard would bang on the door and say: “Are you able to hear that beating? Prepare, you are subsequent.”

She was “interrogated for 10 to 12 hours day-after-day” and repeatedly threatened with execution.

The naked cell, not more than two metres throughout, had no mattress or bathroom. 4 months in solitary confinement was the 36-year-old hairdresser’s introduction to Iran’s infamous Evin jail. The one individuals she noticed have been her interrogators. She thought that she would “die and no-one would know”.

We now have pieced collectively accounts from a number of dependable sources to construct an image of on a regular basis life for Nasim and different girls, who’re presently being held in Evin jail.

Many have been among the many tens of 1000’s of individuals arrested in reference to the “Lady, Life, Freedom” protests that adopted the demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Mahsa had been arrested for allegedly breaking Iranian legal guidelines that require girls to put on the hijab and she or he died in police custody.

Whereas individuals have spoken about situations in Evin after they’ve been launched, it’s uncommon to get particulars of inmates’ lives whereas they’re nonetheless inside.

What we now have heard reveals not solely brutality, however a spot of complicated contrasts the place the prisoners proceed to marketing campaign for ladies’s rights and defiantly problem restrictions imposed on them. There are shocking moments too – one inmate, sometimes allowed time alone along with her husband, has even bought pregnant.

Nasim – who loves rap music and make-up – was taken into custody in April 2023 after becoming a member of protests along with her mates, considered one of whom was killed within the authorities crackdown. She survived interrogations “by serious about those that died on the road”. Individuals who noticed Nasim when she got here out of solitary confinement have described cuts and bruises on her physique and the way she was tortured to make false confessions.

Rezvaneh was additionally arrested following the protests, alongside along with her husband, in 2023. They each ended up in Evin, which has separate sections for women and men. Her interrogators mentioned they might kill her husband and “hit him a lot that he would flip black like coal, and purple like an aubergine”.

After solitary confinement, interrogations and humiliation, Nasim was moved to the ladies’s wing, that homes about 70 individuals, together with Rezvaneh, most of whom have been arrested on political costs.

It’s the place the British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcilffe, who was allowed to return to the UK in 2022, spent practically 4 years of her sentence.

A lot of the girls there have been sentenced due to their activism, for offences together with spreading propaganda, drawing arms towards the regime, and endangering nationwide safety.

They dwell in 4 crowded cells with as much as 20 individuals in each and bunk beds stacked three- excessive.

Dwelling collectively in cramped quarters typically causes friction, and typically fights – each bodily and verbal – get away. However the girls additionally forge tight bonds.

In winter, “everyone seems to be freezing” and the ladies “stroll round with sizzling water bottles” to remain heat. In summer season, they swelter within the warmth.

There’s a small kitchen space with a few hobs the place – in the event that they come up with the money for to purchase meals from the jail store – they will prepare dinner for themselves to complement the fundamental jail meals which can be delivered to their cells.

A darkish, soiled space on the finish of a hall serves as a spot to smoke. A small cemented yard with a little bit space for crops and a volleyball internet offers a bit of outdoor house.

They will put on their very own garments and are free to maneuver round their residing quarters which have two bogs. Each night, they queue to make use of the bathroom and brush their tooth.

It was right here, after she had been in jail for about 4 months, that Rezvaneh came upon she was pregnant.

She had struggled with infertility for years and had given up on ever having a child. However in keeping with Evin’s guidelines, she and her husband – who remains to be a prisoner within the males’s wing – have been sometimes allowed to fulfill in personal and, on considered one of these events, she conceived.

When she realised she was pregnant she “cried for a number of days”.

She discovered “the worst factor was the psychological stress and tensions contained in the jail”. Discovering a quiet place within the crowded cells, the place individuals spend most of their days sitting on their beds, was a relentless problem.

The jail meals left her craving apple juice, bread, and meat, which have been arduous to pay money for. When she might get some meat from the jail store it was no less than twice the worth of meat on the skin.

The jail ultimately allowed her to have an ultrasound scan at 4 months, and docs advised her she was having a lady.

As she listened to “every heartbeat the sense of hope turned stronger”. However she was afraid that the situations in jail would endanger the newborn’s well being. Rezvaneh was not simply involved about her weight loss plan – she has epilepsy and wanted to keep away from stress. Jail docs advised her she had a excessive danger of miscarriage.

Vida, a journalist, loves to color. She makes use of bedsheets for canvases and paints portraits of the opposite girls.

One, which was smuggled out of Evin, is of Kurdish prisoner Pakhshan Azizi who travelled to Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria to assist victims of the Islamic State group. Pakhshan has been sentenced to demise, following costs of utilizing arms to battle the Iranian regime, and there may be nice concern this sentence could possibly be carried out quickly.

Vida has been warned not to attract something with a hidden that means. On one of many partitions within the yard she painted crumbling bricks with a inexperienced forest behind them. The authorities sprayed over it.

In a hall she painted an image of an Iranian cheetah working. A number of the girls “stored saying how a lot good vitality they bought from it”. However one evening the authorities “went and painted over it” and restricted Vida’s entry to portray provides.

One among her murals has been left intact although – big, blue ocean waves on the partitions of the hall the place the ladies go to smoke.

Getting medical care has been a relentless battle for the ladies. One of many inmates, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, has life-threatening coronary heart and lung situations.

However in jail she has needed to battle lengthy and arduous for entry to a physician. Family mentioned that officers repeatedly blocked remedy as a result of she refused to put on a headband to a medical appointment. The authorities solely relented after fellow prisoners went on starvation strike for 2 weeks. Narges was launched for 21 days at first of December on medical grounds.

Behind bars, she and the others have carried out protests, pushing the boundaries and persevering with to battle for his or her rights. Though the legislation requires them to put on headscarves, many refuse. And after a protracted battle with the authorities, the ladies have been allowed curtains across the beds so they might have some privateness, out of view of CCTV cameras.

One of many hardest issues for the ladies is ready to listen to their sentences. Nasim’s interrogators had threatened her with the demise penalty and she or he needed to wait practically 500 days to search out out her destiny.

She discovered solace in her fellow prisoners – who she has described as sisters who give her life and act as “a balm on the injuries” of her wings.

Each morning, considered one of her mates pulls apart the mattress curtain and makes her rise up for breakfast.

“Every day we consider one thing to do, so by the top of the day we will inform ourselves, ‘We lived immediately,'” considered one of our sources explains.

Others spend their time studying poetry, singing, taking part in selfmade card video games and watching TV – there are two televisions the place they will watch Iranian channels displaying drama, documentaries and soccer.

It’s these small issues that stored Nasim going whereas she waited for her sentence, underneath the fixed menace of execution. When the sentence lastly got here, she was given six years in jail, 74 lashes and 20 years in exile in a small city removed from Tehran. She had been charged with distributing propaganda and drawing arms towards the Islamic Republic.

Regardless of the severity of the sentence, Nasim felt she might breathe once more, and embrace the life she thought she had misplaced.

Three different girls within the wing have been sentenced to demise for drawing arms towards the regime or affiliation to armed teams. Nevertheless considered one of them has had her sentence overturned.

Greater than 800 individuals have been executed in Iran final 12 months – the very best quantity in eight years, in keeping with Amnesty Worldwide. Most have been for crimes involving violence and medicines. A handful have been girls.

So each Tuesday, the ladies protest towards executions, chanting within the jail yard, refusing to maneuver all evening and staging starvation strikes. The marketing campaign has unfold by means of jails throughout Iran, gaining worldwide help. On the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s demise the ladies in Evin burned headscarves.

There have been repercussions – typically the guards raid their cells and ladies have been crushed and injured. They will also be taken for additional interrogations, put again in solitary confinement or have telephone calls and visits blocked. A lot of the guards are girls and “typically they’re type, typically they’re merciless and hard-hearted, relying on what orders they obtain from the next authority”, says considered one of our sources.

The Iranian authorities routinely denies allegations of human rights violations, saying situations inside Evin jail meet all mandatory requirements and prisoners aren’t mistreated.

As Rezvaneh’s due date approached, the jail authorities allowed her to briefly depart jail for the delivery. In October, she had a child woman.

However her pleasure and reduction on the secure arrival of her daughter is mingled with concern, disappointment and anger. Her husband was not allowed out of jail along with her, though she has been in a position to take their daughter to go to him in Evin.

And due to the stress, Rezvaneh has struggled to provide breastmilk. She is anticipating to be recalled to Evin jail quickly along with her child daughter to serve the remainder of her five-year sentence – if she’s not granted an early launch, that could possibly be practically 4 years.

Infants are often allowed to stick with their moms in jail till the age of two. After that they’re typically despatched to a detailed relative, or if that’s not doable, they is likely to be positioned in a kids’s dwelling.

However fairly than cease the inmates, one prisoner has mentioned the challenges they face have made her “braver and stronger,” supporting their perception that “the long run is obvious: to battle, even in jail”.