Iranian female political prisoner Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has sent a letter out from Qarchak Prison to expose the conditions that inmates are subjected to and the violation of their rights.
Iraee noted that “life does not exist” in that prison, noting that this is a “full reflection of our society under an authoritarian rule”; a “catastrophe” created by those in charge.
She wrote that some inmates have nothing to do, which inevitably wastes their mind and body away, whilst others are bought off by the authorities to inflict cruelty on other prisoners or takeover the guard’s tasks for no pay.
Iraee said of the prisoners: “With dim eyes and dull skin, without having any wishes for themselves. They are hungry and in the true sense of the word, they are deprived. They are deprived of eating even a complete meal, of being called respectfully, and of even being considered.”
She explained that “widespread repression” and a “lack of knowledge” regarding rights means that there are no protests and, even if there were, the guards would crackdown “violently”.
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Iraee wrote: “In a land where freedom-lovers are murdered by the government, workers are also deprived. They issue death sentences for protesters and freedom lovers and accuse them of sabotage and terrorism. By changing the name of the poor to the sector which enjoys fewer opportunities, they try to cover up the ugly face of poverty and its bitter nature. They call the shanty towns “suburbs” and mock the hungry children running with bare feet.”
She then noted that two years ago Kurdish political prisoners, Zanyar and Loghman Moradi, and Ramin Hossein Panahi, were executed for their political activism. This, she said, means that there is even more reason to protest those in power, “whether they are prison guards or sitting at the helm of the government; whether they are sitting on the royal throne or wearing the black cloak of the reactionary”.
Iraee was arrested at her home on November 9, 2019, by 10 male security agents, who took her to Vozara Detention Center in downtown Tehran, where she was held for two days. She was then taken back home on November 11, when security agents ransacked her apartment and confiscated her belongings, before moving her to Qarchak Prison.
Iraee had been on bail from Evin Prison since April 8, 2019, after serving half of the six-year sentence she began in 2016.
