It is a miracle that she is still alive: For years, Narges Mohammadi has been fighting for human rights in Iran - and from prison. Now Mohammadi has once again managed to address the public. In a letter to the British BBC and on Twitter, she reports how women arrested during the recent protests against the government are being sexually and physically abused.
Who is Narges Mohammadi?
The former deputy of Shirin Ebadi at the Iranian Human Rights Center in Tehran has been in prison since 2015. Among other things, the human rights activist had organized a campaign against the death penalty in Iran and was sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison. From prison, the activist, who has just been awarded the 2023 Olof Palme Prize, continues to play a central role for the women's movement. In 2020, for example, she published a book: "White Torture" contains interviews with twelve female political prisoners in Iranian jails.
What does Mohammadi report from the prisons?
In a letter to the BBC, Mohammadi has now described the current situation in prisons. It shows how women are being sexually and physically abused. Such assaults have become more frequent during the recent protests, she said.
Some of the women arrested during the recent demonstrations had been transferred to the women's section of Evin Prison - where they described to Mohammadi shocking details of abuse they had been subjected to. One well-known activist, she says, had her hands and legs tied to a hook above her head in the vehicle that took her to the prison - after which she was sexually assaulted by security guards.
Mohammadi wrote in the letter to the BBC that - even though reporting on the abuse could lead to intimidation of the families of the detained women - she felt it was necessary to expose what had happened.
"Not revealing these crimes would contribute to the continuation of application of this repressive methods against women," she says.
At the end of the letter, Mohammadi writes that the "brave, resilient, lively and hopeful women" would attain victory. "Victory means establishing democracy, peace and human rights and ending tyranny," she added.
Solitary confinement is "white torture"
Iranintl, meanwhile, reports Mohammadi's recent Instagram postings. There, she said, she posted names of 58 detainees and shed light on the conditions under which these women are being held. She said that incommunicado detention in departments controlled by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard are "gross human rights violations and acts of white torture"; 57 of the 58 female prisoners have suffered "terrible inhumane tortures". Most of these women, especially those who have been in solitary confinement for a long time, suffered from complications and diseases caused by solitary confinement, he said.