Forced Divorce: A Tool of Psychological Torture against Iran’s Political Prisoners
In May 2024, the West Azerbaijan Court of Appeals upheld a family court ruling that forced Sajjad Shahiri, an activist in the Azerbaijani National Movement, to divorce his wife. Sajjad, a political prisoner accused of “propaganda against the regime,” faced significant personal and professional threats from Iranian intelligence officers during and after his detention.
An informed source explained, “During his detention, Ministry of Intelligence interrogators repeatedly pressured Sajjad Shahiri to cooperate. They threatened to disrupt his personal and professional life if he refused.” The source added, “Shortly after Sajjad’s release, his wife’s father and brother—one employed by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the other a retired IRGC member—were influenced by these interrogators to pressure his wife into seeking a divorce. They prevented Sajjad from meeting his wife, kept him from seeing his child for extended periods, imposed substantial financial burdens on him, and ultimately used their influence within the judiciary to finalize the divorce.”
While the divorce ruling appears primarily driven by the wife’s family, this incident is not isolated. Compelling political prisoners or their spouses to forced divorce is a common method of psychological torture used alongside physical torture in Iran’s prisons under the clerical regime.
Coercion for Release
On July 13, 2024, another case of exploiting political activists’ spouses was reported. Marziyeh Rigikhalis, a detained Baloch woman, had been arrested on May 30, 2024, in Fazelabad, Golestan province. Despite nearly two months passing, her fate remains uncertain. Her arrest was executed without any judicial warrant, storming her parents’ home. In a phone call, Marziyeh informed her family that her release was conditioned on revealing her husband’s whereabouts to the security forces.
Forced Separation: The Last Resort of Tyrants
Kobra Zaghedoost, detained for participating in the 2009 protests, endured severe torture for four months in the cells of ward 209 of Evin Prison, forcing her to make false confessions. She was later transferred to the general women’s ward. She recounted, “In late September, after my cellmates were moved to the methadone ward, I was taken for interrogation, where two officers beat me severely, demanding I write whatever they dictated. They repeatedly beat my husband in front of me and vice versa to coerce confessions about non-existent offenses.”
When these pressures failed, a 50-million-Toman bail was issued for her release. Despite her father being ready to pay, the prosecutor insisted, “The bail will only be accepted if Kobra Zaghedoost divorces her husband, Mostafa Eskandari, who was also a political prisoner.” Yahya Pir Abbasi was the judge for this political prisoner couple’s case.
Threats and Coercion to Break Families Apart
In April 2023, a group of prisoners of conscience in the Central Prison of Mashhad wrote an open letter to international organizations, detailing their suffering under the criminal judges Hassan Heydari and Hadi Mansouri, and the security apparatus. “We Sunni political prisoners in the notorious 1.6 ward of Vakilabad prison have faced threats of divorce and rape against us and our families for years.”
In July 2015, families of Iranian political prisoners wrote an open letter to the Iranian people about the judicial system’s atrocities, stating, “Parents are threatened; spouses and children are threatened. Young women are still advised to divorce their oppressed husbands.”
In 2014, after the third arrest of blogger Mehdi Alizadeh Fakhrabadi, the prosecutor told his wife, “Your husband is an enemy of the state and should not be married. You must divorce him.” The pressure was so intense that she eventually succumbed to divorce.
Examining the cases of nine political prisoners from Khuzestan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Kurdistan who were forced to divorce or faced significant security pressures to end their marriages during imprisonment revealed that psychological torture through forced divorce is widespread across Iran.
Karim Bervayeh, arrested in January 2018 in Ahvaz, endured months of solitary confinement and physical and psychological torture. Denied access to a lawyer and family visits, he was sentenced to one year in prison and one year in exile without a fair trial. He recounted, “Interrogators, while preventing me from contacting my family, threatened my wife, demanding she divorce me.”
Habib Deris, Ali Majdam, and other co-defendants, sentenced to death or lengthy prison terms, endured severe physical and psychological torture to extract forced confessions during detention.
A former cellmate of Habib Deris and Ali Majdam reported that their wives, facing beatings and threats, were coerced into divorcing them. These women were beaten in front of their husbands multiple times in detention centers.
Former political prisoner Soheil Arabi shared in an interview, “Judge Ali Razini, who upheld and intensified my death sentence on appeal, told my ex-wife, ‘Your husband is a child of Satan. Divorce him and marry me to taste happiness.’” He mentioned at least four former cellmates who experienced similar tactics from the regime’s security forces.
False Accusations to Break Protesters
The executioners exploit the prisoner’s cultural background to maximize the impact of this form of torture.
A Baloch political prisoner, using the alias “Meisam,” narrated, “From the first interrogation, the interrogator started cursing my wife, mother, and sister. Constantly, he claimed my wife was involved with my friends and had videos to prove it, describing these videos in detail. The constant insults and false accusations about my wife were much harder to endure than the physical torture.”
This former political prisoner noted that a few days after his arrest, his wife left their home and eventually obtained a divorce in his absence. “My wife’s divorce shattered me. I attempted suicide once in prison. When I was released, I found out that the interrogator’s lies about my wife had been spread in my hometown. My noble and honorable wife couldn’t bear the accusations and had to move away with her family.”
Call to Hold the Iranian Judiciary Accountable for Violations of Laws
The existence of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran itself is a violation of international human rights laws. However, using forced divorce as a punishment in political cases is a peculiarity of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran.
In Iran, only men have the exclusive right to initiate divorce, leaving women without this legal recourse. Violence against women seeking divorce is frequently ignored by governmental judges, often resulting in deadly consequences for the women involved. Yet, to exert pressure on resistant political prisoners and to inflict psychological torture, the clerical regime uses the tool of forced divorce, compelling women to divorce their husbands.
The regime’s use of such inhumane decrees to punish political prisoners is deserving of international scrutiny from all perspectives.
In the 1980s, the same regime issued a fatwa to rape virgin women and girls before execution, to legitimize their execution. Additionally, to provide blood for wounded soldiers on the battlefield, the regime ordered the blood of those sentenced to death to be extracted before their executions. Ultimately, the regime issued a fatwa for the massacre of 30,000 resistant political prisoners, which was recently officially termed “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran. Unfortunately, these inhumane practices have yet to be held accountable, and their perpetrators and masterminds continue their crimes with impunity.
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran calls for the UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights, torture, and other forms of degrading and humiliating punishment, violence against women, and the situation of human rights defenders to address the regime’s brutal actions. These actions lead to the disintegration of the families of political prisoners and are indicative of the regime’s gross violations of human rights.
