Civil Rights: Civil activist Yasman Ariani beaten by her fellow prisoners

Yasman Ariani, a civil activist imprisoned in Karaj's Kachou Prison, was beaten on Wednesday, March 24, by her fellow inmates, who are prisoners serving ordinary sentences.

The human rights website "HRANA" wrote in a report, citing an informed source, that Yasman Ariani was denied the right to participate in the prison's cultural activities, including access to the library and participation in the theater, and when she tried to meet with the warden to protest this issue, she was beaten by a number of her fellow prisoners.

Yasman Ariani and her mother, Monireh Arabshahi, were arrested in April 2019 after a video was released showing them distributing flowers to women in the Tehran subway without headscarves.

A few months later, the mother and daughter, who opposed the compulsory hijab, were each sentenced to 16 years in prison by Branch 28 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. This sentence was reduced to 9 years in prison on appeal.

This is not the first time that a political prisoner in Iran has been beaten by prisoners serving general sentences. Similar incidents have occurred before, including the beating of Saba Kord Afshari and Shakila Monfared by prisoners serving general sentences in Qarchak Prison, Varamin, and the murder of Alireza Shir Mohammad Ali, a political prisoner imprisoned in the Greater Tehran Prison (Fashafoyeh), by two prisoners accused of murder.

In recent years, a number of political prisoners have criticized the lack of adherence to the principle of separation of crimes in various prisons in Iran.

Human rights defenders say that the transfer of political prisoners to general crimes units is often done with the intention of "punishing and increasing pressure" on these prisoners.

Source: Voice of America