ژورنال سایت خبری سیاسی ژورنال
English Journal is published on Fridays
PDF-English Journal-23 August 2025-No28
Despite multiple recent deaths in Qarchak women’s prison in Varamin, authorities continue to withhold essential medical services from sick inmates and refuse to transfer them to hospitals unless bribes are paid.
Qarchak prison is among the worst facilities in the Islamic Republic. It has become notorious worldwide among human rights organisations for imposing the harshest conditions on its inmates, in what is essentially a medieval torture chamber.
In recent months, the deaths of Atefeh Banaei and Farzaneh Bijanipour in this grim facility were reported. Both women were denied transfer to hospital despite their critical condition.
The assault on human dignity in Iran has reached unprecedented levels, with ordinary prisoners suffering the gravest conditions. Ordinary prisoners have no rights at all, and systematic crimes against them have not yet become the focus of broader social struggles. This is a field that demands urgent engagement. Ordinary prisoners are rightless, discarded and stripped of identity, as if they were born only to be tormented physically and mentally by one of the world’s most inhumane regimes.
Must this be the inevitable fate of these afflicted and marginalised individuals, whose misery stems directly from the rule of this accursed Islamic government? Most of them have known nothing in life but pain, grief and poverty.
Some may argue that society already faces many ills, such as the thousands of political prisoners whose defence demands urgent action and constant global attention. That is true. But a society that fights for the civil rights of all citizens, including ordinary prisoners, will be better equipped to defend political prisoners, protesting teachers, striking workers and others.
A society that makes all dimensions of human life the centre of its struggle can organise more effectively against poverty and destitution; can more easily call for protests against the persecution of Baháʼís; and can mobilise broader social forces in defence of women defying compulsory veiling.
Against the Islamic Republic’s crimes towards ordinary prisoners in all prisons – and particularly Qarchak – let us unite with all the strength of our humanity.
Editor: Patty Debonitas
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