In a continued campaign of intensified pressure on political prisoners in Iran, political prisoner Shiva Esmaeli, held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, has been denied the right to make phone calls to her sons by direct order of the prison warden. This punitive measure comes in response to her support for the protest campaign “No to Executions Tuesdays.”
Ms. Esmaeli’s two sons, Seyed Mehdi and Seyed Alireza Vafaee Sani, are also incarcerated in Evin Prison’s Ward 8 due to their political activities. Seyed Mehdi is serving a six-year sentence, while Seyed Alireza is serving five years. In addition to enduring her prison sentence, Shiva Esmaeili is now deprived of one of her most basic human rights — contact with her children.
Arrest and Sentencing Background of Shiva Esmaeli
Shiva Esmaeli, born in 1965, is a retired agricultural engineer in Tehran. She was arrested in November 2020 in a non-transparent and extrajudicial manner.
After months of legal limbo, on May 14, 2023, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to ten years on charges of “assembly and collusion against national security.” The verdict was issued without legal counsel and officially communicated to her on May 28, 2023.
Since her arrest, political prisoner Shiva Esmaeli has repeatedly been denied basic prisoner rights, including phone calls, in-person visits, access to medical care, and psychological support. The latest wave of restrictions, imposed under the pretext of her support for the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, has further escalated the pressure on her.
Systematic Violations of Women Political Prisoners’ Rights
The denial of phone contact between political prisoner Shiva Esmaeili and her imprisoned sons is just one example of the broader strategy of repression against women political prisoners in Iran.
Female inmates at Evin’s women’s ward frequently face severe restrictions, denial of furlough, limited contact with family, and psychological harassment, often as punishment for protest activism or expressing solidarity with protest movements.
These repressive conditions, combined with the unsafe physical and psychological environment in prison, are being used systematically to break the resistance of imprisoned women.
