The recent disclosure of documents related to the sexual assault and subsequent murder of the arrested protester Nika Shakarami, before she even reached prison, has once again brought the brutality of the clerical regime’s torturers into the spotlight.
But is the use of rape in the mullah regime’s prisons limited to the 2022 protests, or have there been other instances throughout their history?
To answer these questions, and in recognition of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26, we look back 43 years to 1981 and the beginning of the massive and brutal killings that year. Prisons under the mullahs’ dictatorial rule have always been sites of fierce confrontation between political prisoners and the government. However, women and girls who dared challenge the mullahs suffered disproportionately. From girls as young as 12 to pregnant, elderly, and even ailing women, they endured physical and systematic sexual violence at the hands of prison guards and interrogators.
Due to the inherent misogyny, the clerical regime discriminates against women in all fields. Moreover, it inflicts more intense and violent torture upon women because of their gender. When faced with resistance from a female prisoner, the regime resorts to sexual assault to crush their spirit.
Montazeri’s Memoirs About the Sexual Assault on Imprisoned Women
Hossein Ali Montazeri, once Khomeini’s heir-apparent for 10 years, published memoirs in December 2000 that exposed shocking facts about the regime’s atrocities.
Montazeri acknowledges that the sexual assault of girls in the regime’s prisons was both widespread and systematic. He recounted how he tried to prevent the execution of female prisoners, but his words were distorted.
He wrote, “Many of those arrested in connection with the PMOI were girls, and they were executed for the crime of enmity against God. I conveyed to the judiciary, Evin prison officials, and others, quoting the Imam (Khomeini), that female PMOI members should not face execution. I explicitly instructed the judges not to issue execution orders for these girls. However, my words were distorted,” and a fabricated version emerged, suggesting, “Don’t execute the girls. First, marry them for one night and then execute them.”
In 1986, Hossein Ali Montazeri wrote in a letter addressed to Khomeini, the mullahs’ leader: “Do you know that young girls have been taken by force (raped) in some prisons of the Islamic Republic? Do you know that it is common to use sexual profanity when interrogating girls?”
UN Special Representative Reports on Sexual Assault on Political Prisoners
The systematic rape and sexual assault on women and girls in Iranian prisons has been an ongoing tragedy. Witnesses and evidence from executed political prisoners reveal that sexual assault began as early as the summer of 1981. Shockingly, this violence was not limited to virgins; all female prisoners, from teenagers to elderly women, suffered brutal and inhumane treatment.
Some female prisoners even took their own lives out of fear of rape. Many lost their emotional well-being due to the brutality they endured. The regime’s twisted belief that raping prisoners before execution would prevent “virgin girls from going to heaven” underscores the severity of these crimes.
Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, the UN Special Representative on human rights in Iran, documented disturbing cases. In a report to the Human Rights Commission on January 20, 1987, in paragraph 47, he highlighted pregnant women and others who were raped before execution.
Another report on October 13, 1988, revealed witnesses’ accounts of various tortures, including rape, in paragraph 50. Shockingly, a 60-year-old woman was raped and then executed.
In his report to the Human Rights Commission on January 28, 1993, Professor Galindo Pohl indicated that sexual assault persisted in the regime’s prisons. He noted a prisoner suffering from mental and nervous disorders due to 12 years of torture, including sexual assault, remained incarcerated.
Recent Fatwa by Mesbah Yazdi, and an Example from Tabriz Prison
It is crucial to reference the fatwa issued by Mesbah Yazdi. This prominent reactionary cleric in recent years has unequivocally addressed the issue of sexual assault in prisons and leaves no room for ambiguity. It grants interrogators and jailers the power to use any form of torture, including rape and sexual assault, to extract confessions from prisoners.
According to witness reports, most of the women and girls tried in Tabriz, northwestern Iran were subjected to unique tortures.
Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, the Sharia overseer of Tabriz Court at the time, initially proposed temporary marriages to some of the women and girls he tried. In response, Sorayya Abolfathi slapped him in the face. Enraged by Sorayya’s bold resistance against his advances, Mousavi Tabrizi immediately ordered her execution. Sorayya Abolfathi, 20 years old and pregnant, was executed in 1981 in Tabriz.
Reports Received by the Iranian Resistance
The Iranian Resistance has received numerous reports from the prisons of Tehran, and many other cities, which prove that the regime’s guards used to rape young girls before executing them to prevent them from going to heaven.
In Tehran, before the 1988 massacre, a 26-year-old victim conveyed to her sister over the phone: “They tell me that you are the spoils of war, and they do whatever they want with me.” Her body was not returned to her family, and IRGC guards visited her family’s home with a box of sweets as a purported dowry.
In Shiraz, in 1983, a 21-year-old victim wrote on her clothes that she had been raped seven times before her execution.
In another incident from Shiraz, an IRGC guard visited the home of a young woman who supported the PMOI. He brought sweets and money, introducing himself as the family’s “overnight son-in-law” and informing them that their 20-year-old daughter had been executed the previous day. In December 1981, in Behshahr, northern Iran, several guards approached the father of a 20-year-old woman who had been executed. They presented him with a box of sweets and declared, “We are your sons-in-law.”
In Isfahan, a 17-year-old girl tried to cut her wrist with a glass when she realized that they were going to rape her before the execution. They took her to the hospital and after she recovered, they raped her and then executed her.
The callousness of the guards and interrogators who informed the families about the execution of the girls becomes even more pronounced here when they inform the families that their handcuffed child had been raped by the interrogators in prison before the execution. One can only imagine the extent the families have suffered.
The Imperative for International Accountability
For over 40 years, the lack of accountability and continued impunity for perpetrators of rape, torture, and murder of women political prisoners has encouraged them to commit increasingly widespread and egregious crimes.
During the uprisings of the Iranian people in 2009 and November 2019, numerous narratives and documents emerged detailing the rape of protesting boys and girls. These reports gained widespread international media coverage by 2022.
Considering these revelations, international human rights defenders must conduct thorough audits of this government and prosecute the perpetrators of these heinous acts. Ending the immunity of those in power who commit such atrocities is essential and urgent.
