Narges Mohammadi's mother: We are worried about my daughter's life, but we are being threatened

Narges Mohammadi, the vice president of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, has a lung disease and is being held in a room without ventilation and windows in Zanjan Prison. Her mother says that her family's concerns about the substandard prison conditions have been met with threats.

Narges Mohammadi’s mother, a spokesperson for the Center for Human Rights Defenders and a civil activist, has written a letter to the head of the judiciary, reporting her daughter’s worsening condition. Ms. Ozra Bazargan referred to her daughter’s severe cough, sore throat, and chest pain, and wrote: “In the last 15 days, the women’s ward has been heavily sprayed with insecticide 4 times due to bed bugs, and prisoners have been kept in the cold yard for hours during the day…”

Ms. Bazargan says that the 20-meter room where Narges and her companions sleep and live has no ventilation or windows: "My daughter suffered severe lung damage after a pulmonary embolism and was using a respiratory spray under the supervision of a specialist doctor, and it is natural that she would have difficulty breathing in the current circumstances."

Ozra Bazargan wrote that instead of responding to her and Narges' father's concerns about the substandard conditions in Zanjan Prison, the authorities have threatened them: "My daughter has contracted numerous illnesses in solitary confinement and has undergone major surgery three times in the last five years of her imprisonment, and has only been on leave for three days once in these years."

Narges Mohammadi's mother concluded by stating that the treatment of her daughter was cruel and inhumane.

This is Ms. Bazargan’s third open letter to Ebrahim Raisi in the past two months. Three weeks ago, she had also expressed concern in a letter about her sick daughter being held among ordinary crime suspects, the unsanitary prison environment, and the risks to her physical and mental health. In the letter, she stated that a prisoner accused of murder and robbery had threatened her child sexually and physically, and said: “Her 90-year-old father and I are concerned about our daughter’s physical and mental health, and we are declaring a threat, and we hold the judicial system responsible for anything that happens.”

Narges Mohammadi is currently serving a 16-year sentence. Six years of this sentence were issued for propaganda against the regime and another 10 years for her activities in the “Step by Step to Abolish the Death Penalty” campaign. She had been imprisoned in Evin Prison since May 2015, and was deported to Zanjan Prison in January 2019, and her transfer to this prison was accompanied by physical violence from the Evin prison governor.

Her mother had written in a previous letter to the head of the judiciary that Zanjan Prison was at its lowest point in terms of hygiene: "The dishes are washed in a dirty and old cement pit inside the bathroom, and they won't even agree to pay for the purchase of disinfectants for my daughter."

Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has accused the Ministry of Intelligence of planning to kill Narges Mohammadi. She wrote in a note, among other things: “… because Narges expressed sympathy for those killed in November, they exiled her from Evin Prison to Zanjan Prison again. They are depriving her of health and medical facilities. The security officer, who introduces himself as “Mahmoudi” and, contrary to the law, all decisions related to Narges’ case are made by him (and not by the prosecutor, assistant prosecutor, or court), had told Narges that if she did not write a letter of repentance and resign from the Human Rights Defenders Association, her body would be taken out of prison. And this same officer was present in Evin Prison and observed the scene when Narges was cunningly sent to Zanjan.”