Report – Rasht Women Prison

What goes on in Rasht Women Prison; a report from the “Rasht Women’s Correction and Training Center”

The human rights center of “No to Prison- No to Execution”: Report- Rasht Women Prison

A prisoner recently on leave from Rasht Women Prison, reported to the human rights center of “No to Prison- No to Execution”: “The situation of women prisoners, especially ordinary women prisoners in Rasht Women Prison, is painful and deplorable. The prison authorities’ and prison guards’ behavior toward women prisoners is humiliating and crushing.

The majority of prison guards are mercenaries who are given the job on a meager wage. Some of them are the members of MOIS agent’s families (MOIS= Ministry of Intelligence and Security) or the regime’s followers, including two female guards called Khabari and Faraji. Khabari is the daughter of a regime martyr and Faraji is a member of the MOIS agent’s family.

Population in the quarantine section

The number of quarantined prisoners in this prison varies from 7 to 30 people. There is no peace in the quarantine section. Constantly, new inmates are admitted there and old ones are sent to the wards.

Medical and pharmacy status

There is only a general physician in the prison and diseases and illnesses that need specialists are left unattended.  If an inmate needs to be visited by a specialist, that would be a heck of a job to acquire the warden’s consent.

The prison pharmacy only provides painkillers, and the other needed medication must be provided by the prisoner’s family, of course, if the prison authorities do not prevent the medication from reaching the inmate. Even if the medication enters the prison, it will be kept in the infirmary, and only when the patient is to use it the dosage will be given to her.

Sanitary conditions- Prison Shop

Sanitary conditions in prison are poor. Women prisoners have to buy all they need in that regard from the prison store. Because the prison agents make a lot of money through the prison store, the prisoners have named the store ” the Oil Well”!

Women prisoners are not allowed to have their families bring them any goods other than clothing, and in some cases, they have to buy the same clothes from the store with their own money and at a higher price.

Food and water

The prison store also sells food at several times the price, which is why prisoners are not able to buy any. Vegetables are sold once a week (Monday or Tuesday), but with lower quality and much higher price sold outside. The prisoners protested the fact but in vain.

The families of the prisoners are not able to provide their loved ones with money to buy food as they are mostly from low-income families, thus the prisoners are forced to deal with the prison food, which is of poor quality and repetitive. There is no drinking water in some wards, and prisoners are forced to buy expensive water from the store.

Prostitution and espionage; weak-minded prisoners in Rasht Women Prison

These harsh and unbearable conditions have led some weak people to spy for benefits or leave. In one case, a prisoner who was spying for prison agents reported on political prisoners. “In return for my request for release, I promised to spy on prisoners so that they would release me or grant me a furlough,” she said. However, the prison officials do not even have mercy on these people and do not fulfill their promises.

Cell’s Mother “The Cell’s Mother” is an expression used at this prison which actually means the inmate responsible for the cell. She is the most miserable of all the prisoners as she has to work for everybody and execute the goals of the prison agents. But some prisoners accept this position only because then they will benefit from more minutes in their phone calls.

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