On Thursday, September 25, 2025, women political prisoners in Qarchak Prison in Varamin staged protest gatherings in response to the death of Somayeh Rashidi.
Somayeh Rashidi was a 42-year-old garment worker arrested in April as she was writing on a wall, “Iranian workers are awake and hate the Shah and the mullahs.” She was brutally beaten and her head slammed against the wall.
Somayeh passed away on Thursday, September 25, at Mofatteh Hospital in Varamin after 10 days in a coma.
At Qarchak Prison, where Somayeh Rashidi had been held, women political prisoners immediately expressed their outrage after news of her death spread. They chanted slogans including “Death to Khamenei,” “Curse on Khomeini,” “Death to the dictator,” and “Somayeh has risen, she too has become a martyr.”
Revolutionary songs such as “The Flame Has Sparked in the Meadow” filled the political prisoners’ ward, turning it into a powerful scene of resistance and solidarity.
At Ward 7 of Evin Prison, inmates began their protest at 6:30 p.m. by gathering in the courtyard and chanting slogans against the authorities and the judiciary.
They described Rashidi’s death as an organized crime and honored her memory by singing the patriotic anthem “Ey Iran” and chanting slogans such as “We swear on the blood of our comrades, we will stand until the end” and “We may lose our heads and lives, but freedom will never die.”
The protest continued until midnight, as prisoners remained in the courtyard to challenge the authorities’ indifference toward the lives of inmates.
Significance of the Protests
These demonstrations once again highlight that, despite relentless repression, Iran’s prisons remain centers of resistance and demands for justice.
Women political prisoners in Qarchak, at great personal risk, keep alive the voices of the silenced and insist that Rashidi’s death was not an isolated incident but part of the systemic repression inside Iranian prisons.
The NCRI Women’s Committee urges the United Nations Special Rapporteur to investigate the circumstances of Somayeh Rashidi’s death and the crime of the clerical regime.
The Committee also urges the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on Iran, and the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women to take urgent action to save the lives of sick prisoners, especially women, in the Qarchak torture chamber.
