Female political prisoners demand responsibility for sexual abuse

Twenty-two political and ideological prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison have published a letter calling for an immediate end to the sexual harassment of inmates during strip searches.

22 female political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison have issued an open letter calling for an end to the sexual harassment of inmates during strip searches.

“We, a group of female political and ideological prisoners in Evin Prison, demand accountability for the unconventional strip searches and sexual harassment of several inmates during these inspections. If the authorities do not respond, we will resort to protest actions,” they said letter This was posted on political prisoner Gholrokh Iiraee’s X account on Sunday.

Recent reports have shed light on incidents of sexual assault and ill-treatment in Iran’s prison system.

At the end of May this year, a source close to the families of political prisoners revealed that they were female prison guards sexually abused the wife of a political prisoner during a body search.

“These body inspections have become a pretext for sexual harassment of prisoners,” commented journalist and human rights activist Reza Akvanian on the situation an interview with Iran International.

While there is technology to perform non-invasive scans, Akvanian said, Iranian prisons continue to allow invasive procedures that could lead to sexual harassment. Akvanian questioned the willingness of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary to address these violations, citing past neglect and increased penalties for activists who report such violations.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, who was imprisoned in Evin and was one of the signatories of the letter, was confronted new fees earlier this year after incidents of sexual harassment against imprisoned women were uncovered.

A March 2024 report by the United Nations Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Iran confirmed cases of sexual violence, including gang rape and forced nudity, during the nationwide Women, Life, Freedom protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody were 2022.

“To extract confessions, punish and humiliate detained women, girls, men and boys, security officials subjected them to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, gang rape, rape with an object and forced nudity, as well as beatings and flogging,” and burnings, the use of electric shocks, suspension and stress positions, in acts that amount to torture,” said the FMM in their report.

Last year Human Rights Watch And Amnesty International published reports of sexual assaults by agents of the IRGC, the Basij, the Ministry of Intelligence and various police agencies against women, men and children during the protests following Amini’s death.