Half a million female prisoners and the execution of four women in one month
Shocking record of mullahs in executions and crimes in prisons
May 2022 was marked by a growing number of anti-government protests in Iran against rising prices and high prices of food staples.
At the same time, the Iranian resistance revealed shocking documents from more than four decades of mullahs’ crimes in prisons.
The month of May also saw an increase in arrests and executions, including the execution of four women.
These are the issues covered in this issue of the monthly report of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Execution of four women
With soaring prices and spreading hunger and poverty, the Iranian people’s discontent is reaching new heights. Not only the clerical regime has not stopped killing the people, but it has also increased the number of executions daily.
In May alone, the Iranian Judiciary ordered the execution of four women.
The latest case of execution of women was that of Ladan Molla Saeedi, who was hanged in the notorious prison of Qarchak.
On May 23, an unidentified woman was hanged in the Prison of Amol.
Another woman identified with the surname “Hayati” was executed on May 22 in Adelabad Prison of Shiraz.
On May 7, a Baluch woman was hanged in the Central Prison of Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeastern Iran.
The four latest executions of women bring to 135 the total number of women executed in Iran since September 2013.
183 women on the death row
According to documents obtained from within the mullahs’ regime, the Iranian Resistance declared that 183 women in the regime’s prisons were on death row or sentenced to Qesas (death by retribution).
Death by retribution is carried out on persons convicted of murder, regardless of their motives.
According to the statistics registered by the office of the Prisons Organization, 5,197 people are on death row or sentenced to Qisas (retribution in kind). Of these, 1,366 are sentenced to death, including 39 women. Another 3,831 prisoners, including 144 women, have a sentence of Qisas or retribution in kind.
The documents also list the names of 51 persons, including 23 women, sentenced to death by stoning by September 2020.
12 million prisoners include 0.5 million women
In yet another major revelation, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) divulged a list of 12 million prisoners detained by the clerical regime in the past 43 years. The list contains the names of 579,015 women.
The figure does not include the data or names of the PMOI/MEK female political prisoners among the 120,000 executed in the 1980s.
Some 48,559 of the detainees, including 1,706 women, are going through the “investigation phase” and held with “undecided” status by agencies such as the State Security Force (SSF) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Based on this data, 17,190 prisoners have more than 15 years of the sentence.
Another highly confidential document lists 2,273 names of detainees arrested on political grounds or during anti-government protests, including members of Resistance Units. 1,552 of these prisoners are convicted, and 721 are detained on charges.
The inhumane conditions in prisons
The NCRI also revealed the disastrous, inhumane conditions in the clerical regime’s jails.
Many of these prisons were built more than 50 years ago, and the buildings are highly dilapidated. More importantly, the task of dumping and amassing prisoners at an unusually high rate doubles the physical and psychological torture they endure and, at the same time, aims to intimidate the public. The documents also include one hundred photographs of prisons in 23 provinces.
The photos do not include images of women’s wards. However, similar conditions prevail in the women’s wards in all prisons, particularly in the central prisons of Mashhad and Urmia and Qarchak Prison, where women are executed.
One example is the women’s ward of the Central Prison of Urmia, with a capacity for less than 200 female inmates. In November 2020, some 300 female prisoners were collected from across the province and transferred to this already overcrowded ward. Many of these prisoners sleep on the floor.
An internal document of the Judiciary contained the data on 277 prisons showing a chart with “nominal capacity” for each prison. In the next column, the “number of beds” in the same prison is much higher than the “nominal capacity.” The last column shows the “number of prisoners,” which are much more than the number of beds.
So the prisoners face a tormenting situation where they have to sleep on the floor.
According to the latest document published by the NCRI, at least 325 prisons, detention centers, camps, and rehabilitation centers operate under the supervision of the mullahs’ Judiciary. That is in addition to the 159 prisons belonging to the State Security Force (SSF) and 147 detention centers of the MOIS.
Iran carried out more than half of the world’s executions in 2021
A new Amnesty International report dated May 24, 2022, noted the Iranian regime’s shocking record in carrying out death penalties. At least 314 (or 54%) of the 579 registered executions in 18 countries in 2021 were carried out in Iran.
According to the new Amnesty International report, 14 women were among those executed in Iran in 2021.
The NCRI Women’s Committee recorded the executions of 18 women in Iran in 2021.
AI said Iran executed at least 314 people (up from at least 246 in 2020), their highest number of executions since 2017, reversing year-on-year declines since then.
The report states that the global number of executions in 2021 increased by about 20% compared to the previous year.
The Amnesty International report also pointed out that with at least 314 executions registered in 2021, Iran tops the list of countries that use the death penalty. AI noted the actual numbers are probably higher.
According to the Amnesty International report, the Iranian regime violates children’s rights and tramples relevant international treaties. They have executed at least three convicts under 18 at the time of the crime.
Baluch and Kurd prisoners make up the largest number of execution victims in Iran. A Baluch woman was hanged in the Central Prison of Zahedan on May 7, 2022.
The NCRI Women’s Committee emphasizes that the case of the horrific and systematic violations of human rights in Iran must be referred to the UN Security Council. It calls on the United Nations to send a delegation to visit prisons and prisoners, especially women prisoners.
The clerical regime officials must be brought to justice for four decades of crimes against humanity, especially the double violence against Iranian women.
A glance at the anti-government protests in Iran and the role of women
Rising prices, especially the price of bread, put double pressure on Iranian women. So, it makes sense that women played an active and influential role in this series of widespread anti-government uprisings.
Anti-government protests against price hikes reached a new height with the collapse of the Metropol building in Abadan and spread rapidly to many cities. Khorramshahr, Shadegan, Mahshahr, Masjed Soleiman, Minoo Island, Firoozabad of Fars, Tehran, Andimeshk, Omidieh, Shahre Rey, Bushehr, Shahin Shahr Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Baghmalek and Yazd were among these cities across Iran.
The protests in solidarity with the people of Abadan lasted for more than ten days. Various groups, including students, attended them.
Iranian women stood in solidarity with the suffering people of Abadan and bravely chanted anti-government slogans. In Khorramshahr, for example, the courage of women and their ubiquitous presence in support of Abadan was a model for women in all cities of Iran. They echoed the desires of the Iranian people, who wanted to overthrow the mullahs’ religious tyranny.
The Iran protests were widely reported in the international media and news agencies.
