Female prisoners in Qarchak Prison and the women’s ward of the Central Prison of Sanandaj, known as the Correctional Center, are deprived of food during the holy month of Ramadan. These prisoners are not in good condition, and the prison authorities are starving them.
Qarchak internees deprived of minimum facilities during Ramadan
During Ramadan, political prisoners in Qarchak Prison in Varamin are deprived of basic facilities.
These women do not have a place to use a cooking light to prepare a simple meal to break their fast or even warm up a simple soup for the sick. Prison food has no meat, and soy is added to the food instead. Eggs are given only once a week. Due to the poor quality of prison food, the prisoners feel weak and need eggs to make up for their deficiencies, but they do not have access to eggs.
Qarchak Prisoners cannot even buy eggs from the prison’s store every week. The items sold by the prison store are expensive, limited, and of poor quality. Raw ingredients are not sold at all.
Another problem is that Qarchak Prison halls are warm.
Due to its geographical location, the halls are warm, and the cooling system cannot the halls although the summer has not started yet. Such conditions worsen the sick prisoners’ situation, facing many problems.
Prison guards and officials at Qarchak Prison take advantage of every opportunity to increase pressure on political prisoners. Lack of hot water in the cold of winter, the spread of Omicron in this prison, and depriving prisoners of the right to leave are among the pressures applied to political prisoners in this women’s prison.
As the Warden of Qarchak, Soghari Khodadadi is the principal official responsible for putting pressure on prisoners, especially political prisoners. The US Treasury Department blacklisted Khodadadi on December 7, 2021.
Deliberate starvation of prisoners in Sanandaj during Ramadan
In the women’s ward of Sanandaj Prison, known as the Correctional and Training Center, prison authorities provide only one meal per day during Ramadan. Deliberate starvation of female prisoners in Ramadan has caused them serious physical and psychological problems.
An informed source reported that only a small number of female prisoners are fasting. However, most non-fasting prisoners are deliberately starved by prison officials and given only one meal in 24 hours.
Deliberate starvation of prisoners is a clear example of torture. Depriving prisoners of the right to food deprives them of their right to life. The lives of the women imprisoned in the abovesaid prisons are in danger.
