The dire situation of the women's penitentiary in Sepidar Prison, Ahvaz: "It is better to die than to stay in this prison for a few years"

A former prisoner who spent several days in the women’s ward of Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz recently told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the prison is deprived of the most basic necessities of a dignified life and that prisoners spend their days in “ hell. ” The source, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said that self-harm and suicide are extremely common among women in this prison, and in the words of the prisoners themselves , “after self-harming, they are transferred to the prison’s health center to spend a few days in better conditions or eventually die. ”

Referring to the abundance of " lice, small insects, and cockroaches in the prison cells," the source said : " The floor of the cell, on the furniture, and in the beds, is full of lice, small insects, and cockroaches. They live next to the prisoners, and the conditions for the prisoners who are forced to sleep on the floor are worse. On the other hand, the sewage system in the cell's toilet was problematic. The prisoners defecated on the previous garbage. You cannot see this picture anywhere else in life. The prison meals are also small and of extremely poor quality. You would regularly see garbage in the food. "

He said about his experience in the prison for a few days: "The first night, they gave us two blankets, one used as a mat and the other as a blanket. But the blankets were extremely dirty. The previous prisoner's vomit was still on one of the blankets. It smelled so bad that I couldn't use it and I slept on the floor with small insects and cockroaches crawling around next to me. Finally, one of the prisoners was kind and gave me a clean blanket that his family had brought for him."

This former prisoner told the Campaign about the prevalence of suicide and self-harm in the women's penitentiary of Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz: " I witnessed two failed suicides during the few days I was there. Most of the prisoners did this because of the bad prison conditions because they could not bear it there. They said it would be better to die than to stay in this prison for a few years. One of the prisoners said, 'I will go to the infirmary for at least a few days, because it is cleaner than here, or I will die and be comfortable.' One of them broke a mirror he was holding and hit his neck with it. But the matter did not end there. Contrary to his expectations, they did not take him to the infirmary quickly. After a bunch of prisoners screamed and banged on the door, the officers came and said to bandage his neck. We said he was dying, he was bleeding a lot. It was as if they did not care at all. Finally, after a while, they took him out. "

According to her, the women's ward's health center is also without a doctor or even a nurse on many days of the week : " One day, a girl had a severe seizure and fainted with her head on the bathroom floor. The prisoners pounded on the door for maybe ten minutes until finally a woman who was neither a doctor nor a nurse came in. She looked at the girl lying on the mud in the bathroom for a few minutes and finally just threw water on her face. We were screaming, begging to be taken to the health center. Her head was swollen from hitting the floor. I said she definitely needed a head scan, but she told me not to worry, she wouldn't die, she would survive, and she went out. The prisoners themselves made sugar water for her and gave it to her. Death in that prison is a normal and even insignificant event. "

The former prisoner also mentioned that he himself needed to take a number of pills during the day due to his illness, telling the campaign : " Although the prison authorities even had a letter from my doctor and were medically convinced that I should take my pills, they did not give me any pills during the few days I was in prison. A prison official said that the prison doctor had to see me and approve the prescription of the pills, and that would take a month. I did not take my pills during those days, which was nothing compared to the surrounding conditions. "

According to him, most of the women in this prison were in prison for drug-related crimes : " Many of these women had no one outside the prison to follow up on their work. They said that many of them were still in prison and in this situation despite the completion of their sentences because they had no one outside to get their release letters. I myself met a girl who had been sentenced to one year in prison, but three months had passed since her sentence ended and she was still in prison because she had no one outside to follow up on her release papers, and even the prison worker did not issue any orders. "

The Sepidar Women's Penitentiary in Ahvaz began operating in 2009. In an interview with Fars News Agency in January 2009, the Director General of Khuzestan Prisons said that the prison has an area of ​​700 square meters and a standard capacity of 150 clients. It has a well-equipped and independent medical center, a triage and counseling clinic, a technical and professional site and employment within the prison, a cultural and educational complex, necessary facilities and service centers, and an indoor sports complex that has been built in a suitable space.

In December 2018, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, visited the women’s ward of Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz . She had “ face-to-face meetings ” with the prisoners and visited “ employment and vocational training workshops . ” However, no mention was made of the health, welfare, and basic needs of the women in the prison. In the photos published by the website of the General Directorate of Prisons and Security and Educational Measures of Khuzestan Province, Ms. Ebtekar is in the kitchen with a group of women and men who accompanied her on the visit, or in the prayer room and the prison corridor, all of which are in normal conditions. However, there is no photo of the visit to the women’s ward, their beds, the prison floor, or the restrooms.

In recent months, reports have been published about the poor conditions of the Greater Tehran Prison (Fashafoyeh) by some Gonabadi dervishes, as well as Nader Fatorechi, a journalist who was arrested due to a complaint by the producer of the TV series "Shahrzad" and spent one day in this prison in August 2018.

After his release from this prison, journalist Nader Fatourehchi likened this prison to “hell” in a critical article. In his article, the journalist considered “paying attention to the living conditions and welfare of the “ordinary prisoners” in Fashafoyeh” to be “an urgent, immediate and urgent necessity.” He wrote: “They are in the strictest sense of the word “under inhuman conditions” and experience double rejection that is beyond the human capacity to endure even for a day and night, and undoubtedly leaves irreparable damage to their bodies and souls for eternity, and their number is increasing day by day.”

In another report in November 2018, an informed source told the Campaign about the situation in Ward ( Type 1 ) of this prison, known as the Methadone Ward: “ 400 people are held in Ward 1 of the prison, which has a capacity of 100. Every day, there is only three hours from 11 am to 1 pm to take a cold shower. Even in this season, not all prisoners have access to hot water. Of course, some who do not go beyond the fingers of one hand and, as the head and senior officials of the prison say, have the right to use hot water. ”

The source referred to the abundance of "pills" in the methadone ward and said: " This hall, which is known as the cleanest hall in the prison, although drugs are prevented from entering, all kinds of pills are easily available. It is not clear why when officers prevent drugs from entering the hall, they also allow pills to enter immediately. Some prisoners in this hall are not in a normal state most of the time. "

Source: Iran Human Rights