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Politics

Women of Evin Prison Back Iran Protesters

October 13, 2022
Akhtar Safi
2 min read
Women inmates in Iran's notorious Evin Prison have backed the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran and condemned security forces for violently repressing the people
Women inmates in Iran's notorious Evin Prison have backed the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran and condemned security forces for violently repressing the people

Women inmates in Iran's notorious Evin Prison have backed the ongoing nationwide protests in Iran and condemned security forces for violently repressing the people. 

Narges Mohammadi, a prominent human rights activist who has been repeatedly arrested in recent years for her work and public comments, and who is herself currently incarcerated in Evin, said people inside the prison were angry. Iranian women had been facing suppression from security agencies for more than four decades, she said, at a gathering in the prison yard.

"For 43 years, an authoritarian and misogynistic government has controlled all aspects of Iranians' lives, and everyone who has protested faces brutal repression," she is reported to have said.

"Our fathers and mothers were imprisoned, tortured and executed in the 1980s by the same authorities who are violently killing our 16-year-old boys and girls in the streets today. I’m sure that if the mothers of Mahsa, Nika and Sarina [three young women killed in recent weeks, starting with Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody on September 16] had known that their daughters would be torn apart by the government, they would have used their breasts as shields to protect them," she added. 

Mohammadi, 50, has been repeatedly targeted by the Iranian judiciary. She received an 11-year sentence in 2012 but was soon released on medical grounds. In 2015, she was arrested again to face new charges. 

Eventually, she was sentenced to a total of 16 years for allegedly planning crimes threatening national security, spreading propaganda against the government and forming and managing an illegal group.

"As a mother, I ask all Iranian mothers to stand against this brutality. We have raised our kids with love, but they have fallen victim to a misogynistic system. They prefer to protest and die rather than endure a gradual death under the brutal system," she added.  

Nasrin Adib, another political prisoner in Evin, has also condemned officials for killing protesters. She said the hearts of "all Iranian mothers were bleeding" over the past few weeks. 

And Zeinab Hamrang, a teacher's rights activist serving time behind bars, said: "The unfortunate and tragic news of our children getting killed hurts our motherly hearts. We understand what it means to have children. Sarina, Nika and Mahsa were our students, and we will not forget them," she said at the event. 

At least 40 inmates took part in the event, including Zila Makundi, Sepideh Qalian, Hasti Amiri and Maleeha Jafa. 

Iranian authorities use Evin Prison for detaining, interrogating and jailing political prisoners. The facility was opened in northern Tehran in 1972 during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign before he was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Revolution, took control of Iran, violence at Evin escalated. And in the 1980s, tens of thousands of dissidents were executed at Evin in one of the most savage political mass killings in modern history.

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