On Monday, September 29, nineteen female political prisoners held in Qarchak Prison, Varamin, announced a two-day hunger strike beginning on Monday.
The hunger strike follows the death of their fellow inmate, Somayeh Rashidi, and protests the authorities’ negligence, lack of accountability for the recurring deaths of inmates, and the authorities’ refusal to transfer female political prisoners from Qarchak to Evin Prison.
Over the past three months, conditions in Qarchak Prison have deteriorated to an unprecedented degree. Reports highlight political prisoners being kept in quarantine, subjected to arbitrary punishments such as solitary confinement, violent raids by prison guards, and denial of medical care for ill prisoners.
This systemic neglect has already led to the deaths of three women: political prisoner Somayeh Rashidi and two financial prisoners, Jamileh Azizi and Soudabeh Asadi.
Following Rashidi’s death, several political prisoners at Qarchak Prison raised protest chants. In retaliation, authorities punished detainees including Shiva Esmaeili, Marzieh Farsi, Forough Taghipour, Arghavan Fallahi, Anisha Asadollahi, and Golrokh Ebrahimi by suspending their family visitation rights on three separate occasions.
In the meantime, in Evin Prison, a group of political prisoners staged a sit-in at the yard of Ward 7 in solidarity with the women political prisoners in Qarchak Prison. Their core demands were the immediate transfer of female political prisoners from Qarchak to Evin and the release of sick prisoners.
These events once again underscore the critical situation at Qarchak Prison and the systemic violations of women prisoners’ rights in Iran, demanding urgent action by the international community and human rights organizations to inspect this prison and interview the prisoners.