Taktem Ramazani Dies in Vakilabad Prison; When Treatment Becomes a Privilege

Taktem Ramazani, a 37-year-old woman imprisoned in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, died after four days of enduring severe abdominal pain, reportedly due to delays in transferring her to a hospital. Her death once again highlights the issue of prisoners in Iran being deprived of timely medical care—a right that cannot be denied to a person even as a result of committing a crime.

According to a report published by the human rights organization Hengaw, Taktem Ramazani, 37 years old and a resident of Mashhad, died on Tuesday, August 20, 1405 (August 11, 2026), in Ward Two for women at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

According to the report, Ramazani suffered severe pain in her abdominal area and gallbladder for four days before her death, and as her physical condition worsened, she and her cellmates repeatedly requested medical attention and her transfer to a hospital. According to statements from her cellmates, prison officials and medical staff, despite the severity of Taktem’s condition, refused to immediately transfer her to a specialized medical center outside the prison, and ultimately, a ruptured gallbladder resulted in her death.

The details of this case have so far been released primarily by human rights sources, and regarding the claim of “deliberate negligence” by prison officials, no independent official explanation has been released by judicial authorities or Iran’s prison organization. Therefore, this section of the report should be considered within the framework of the claims made by human rights sources.

Taktem Ramazani had previously been arrested in connection with charges related to “narcotics” and was sentenced to imprisonment. During her detention, she also worked as a laborer in the prison’s waste collection department.

However, even if the charges brought against a prisoner are true, the essential point in such a case must not be lost: “A prisoner, upon entering prison, does not lose the right to life and the right to receive medical care.”

A sentence of imprisonment is a punishment of deprivation of freedom, not a punishment of denial of treatment. A prisoner may have committed murder, theft, drug-related crimes, or any other crime; but their criminal liability cannot serve as justification for disregarding an emergency medical situation or preventing access to necessary treatment.

This is not a new concern regarding Iran’s prisons. Human Rights Watch announced in October 2025, following the deaths of three female prisoners in Qarchak Prison, that these deaths exemplify a long-standing pattern of depriving prisoners of medical care. The organization emphasized that Iranian authorities, by depriving prisoners of medical care, can even contribute to their deaths.

Human Rights Watch stated in its 2026 report on Iran that deliberate deprivation of prisoners of adequate and timely medical care remains widespread and systematic. The organization has documented cases of ill prisoners who have been denied transfer to medical centers outside the prison and denied access to specialized care.

Amnesty International has also been warning about this issue for years. In a report on the state of medical care in Iran’s prisons, the organization has documented numerous cases where prisoner transfers to hospitals have been delayed or, even after transfer, timely treatment has not been provided. In some cases, prisoners have died in prison or during transfer to the hospital.

The death of Taktem Ramazani, if the details of the reported account are confirmed, is therefore not merely an individual case; rather, it is a reminder of a fundamental question about the state of Iran’s prisons: Does the life of a prisoner lose value because of the commission of a crime?

Human rights are founded on the principle that human dignity does not cease even under conditions of imprisonment. A prisoner may lose their freedom of movement, but the right to life, protection from torture and inhumane treatment, and the right to adequate medical care remain intact.

For this reason, the discussion of Taktem Ramazani should not be limited to what charges she was imprisoned for. Even if her charges have been proven and a judicial verdict has been issued against her, the question of how prison officials treated her illness remains valid: Was four days of severe pain not sufficient warning to transfer a prisoner to a hospital? Were the medical facilities in the prison adequate to diagnose and treat her condition? And if transfer to a hospital was necessary, why was it not done in a timely manner?

These questions become even more significant because reports from international organizations show that the problem of Iranian prisoners’ access to treatment is not limited to one prison or one specific case. Human Rights Watch has referred to “deliberate and timely” deprivation of medical care as part of inhumane treatment of prisoners in Iran, and Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of death and serious harm resulting from delays in or denial of treatment.

In such circumstances, defending the right to treatment of prisoners does not mean defending their crimes; rather, the issue is a defense of human rights.

If the prison is to be a place where sentences are executed, it must not become a place for additional punishment, denial of treatment, or endangerment of human lives. The government’s responsibility for a prisoner’s life does not end when they are locked in a cell; rather, from that moment on, ensuring their health and dignity becomes a direct responsibility of the prison system.

The death of Taktem Ramazani, as reported, requires an independent and transparent investigation into the cause of death, the process of medical care, her requests and those of her cellmates for transfer to a hospital, and the actions of prison officials. If there was negligence or intentional prevention of her treatment, those responsible must be held accountable.

Such investigations are conducted not to acquit a prisoner of possible charges, but to defend a principle that should never be forgotten in any prison: No human being, not even a prisoner, should lose their life due to deprivation of preventable medical treatment.