Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward, a High Security Ward
15-December-2020
Category: Prisoners، Women
Thirty one women prisoners and political defendants are currently being held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. This is a High Security Ward with at least 30 CCTV by which the prisoners are under constant control.
In terms of medical care, hospital referrals, food and hygiene, especially following the outbreak of Covid-19, the ward’s condition is very bad. And disregarding the Coronavirus pandemic, transfer to the courts are constantly ongoing.
Food situation is so bad that most of the inmates have to buy their food from the prison store at a price several times higher than the outside. All of the ward equipment have been provided by the prisoners’ families, as the prison has not provided any facilities for the prisoners.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, and on the pretext of it, the officials have stopped face-to-face visits. However, according to the prisoners, the authorities ignoring preventive protocols, do not wear face masks and additionally, the agents of various entities, disregarding hygienic instructions, persistently show up for repeated inspections. The fact which has raised serious concerns about the safety of these prisoners.
The communication of prisoners with their families and the people outside the prison, is limited to once a week visits on Sundays as well as thrice a week phone calls, each time only for ten minutes. For this purpose, prisoners are permitted to save 5 phone numbers on their SIM cards to which they are allowed to contact.
Mother-prisoners were previously permitted to meet their children on Wednesdays. This however, has been completely stopped since almost a year.
For cleaning the chairs and telephones of non-contact visitation areas, prisoners are not provided with any disinfectants and the prisoners’ families have to bring these materials along. Furthermore the glasses in visitation areas are too old, stained and grimy, which makes it very difficult for the prisoners and visitors to see each other.
It needs to be mentioned that in recent days, a significant number of prisoners have been deported to other prisons: Yasaman Ariani and Monireh Arabshahi have been deported to Kachuei Prison in Karaj, Samaneh Norouz Moradi to Lakan Prison in Rasht, and Elham Barmaki, Saba Kordafshari, Mojgan Keshavarz and Sepideh Farhan to Qarchak Prison in Varamin .
In addition, a number of prisoners, including Nazanin Zaghari and Fariba Adelkhah, are on leave with electronic ankle tags.
Ms. Masoumeh Askari, a retired teacher whose sick leave had been legally approved, was returned to prison and is currently admitted to Aminabad Psychiatric Hospital in Tehran.
On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, we have published a full list of the prisoners held in this ward until December 10, 2020.
Evin Women Ward December 2020
The Prisoners’ Right League in Iran
December, 2020