Hamed Farmand, Children’s Rights Activist and president of Children of Imprisoned Parents International
It has been more than four years since a group of children were last held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. Now, many of the concerns that were previously raised about the care of children in Iran’s most well-known prison have resurfaced in the news once again.
Although the women’s ward of Evin Prison is not considered the worst or most dreadful compared to other wards and women’s prisons in Iran, it is certainly the most famous. The fame of Evin’s women’s ward is not solely due to the presence of well-known individuals with significant media access. Over the years, several academic articles, books, and documentary films have been produced about the children born or raised in this prison, reaching audiences in languages other than Persian.
This report is part of a series of investigative reports on the situation of pregnant women, children, and their imprisoned mothers in women’s wards and prisons across Iran, with a specific focus on the women’s ward of Evin Prison.
For the preparation of this report, interviews were conducted with two former prisoners of the women’s ward in Evin Prison, and information was gathered from sources including Iran International TV, the Instagram account of Iranian Women’s Call, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, the HRANA news agency, BBC Persian’s website, Mizan News Agency, ISNA News Agency, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Radio Farda, Asr-e-Iran, Aasoo, the Zeytoon News and Analysis website, and the Twitter account of a former prisoner.
Previous reports on women’s prisons and wards in Iran have been published on Radio Zamaneh, covering Kachouei Prison (October 19, 2023), Sepidar Ahvaz Prison (October 26, 2023), Qarchak Prison (November 27, 2023), Urmia Prison (January 18, 2024), Lakan Rasht Prison (February 18, 2024), Vakilabad Mashhad Prison (March 16, 2024), Khorramabad Prison (June 9, 2024), and Yasuj Prison (July 4, 2024). The reports on Lakan, Khorramabad, and Yasuj haven’t yet published in English.
This report is a translation of the original article, published on September 5th, by Radio Zamaneh.
Helplessness Under the Shadow of Fame
Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current prisoner in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, has highlighted the “overcrowding of all rooms and beds” in the ward and the high number of sick inmates. She pointed to the physical condition of pregnant prisoner Rezvaneh Ahmadkhan Beigi, who suffers from fluctuating blood pressure and heart palpitations, along with the poor environmental conditions, including inadequate nutrition and lack of medical attention. Mohammadi accused the government of violating the rights of prisoners, the sick, mothers, and pregnant women with “cruelty, hatred, and heartlessness.”
Additionally, no news has been released regarding the release, furlough, or transfer of Nasibeh Eslam Zehi, who gave birth to her child this past May while in Evin Prison. If she and her newborn are still being held in the ward, there are concerns about the safety, health, and well-being of the child. Recently, Iranian Women’s Call (Neday-e-Zanan_e_Iran) reported on its Instagram page about the presence of an eight-month-old baby and her mother, an Afghan national, in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. According to the account, this mother and her baby had spent five months in solitary confinement.
It has been over four years since a group of children was last held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. Now, many of the concerns regarding the care of children in Iran’s most famous prison have resurfaced in the news. Issues such as the lack of proper nutrition for pregnant women, inadequate food quality that meets the developmental needs of infants and toddlers, caring for a newborn with a weak immune system alongside dozens of prisoners suffering from various illnesses, and keeping a child in a polluted, noisy, and unstable environment are some of the conditions faced by children and mothers in most women’s wards of Iran’s prisons, including Evin Prison.
From November 2017 to March 2020, 16 Kurdish Sunni women, along with several children, were held under highly secure conditions in Ward 2 of the women’s section in Evin Prison. By the spring of 2018, after three of the Kurdish women gave birth, five children were in a ward where all windows were blocked, allowing neither natural light nor fresh air to enter. From then until July 2019, when the five children were handed over to their families, eight newborn and toddler-aged children were kept in conditions without sufficient space for free movement, without special food, and without any recreational or educational facilities. For a long time, these women had no access to cooking facilities, and it was only after persistent pressure from the political prisoners in the adjacent ward that they were given limited access to heat food for their children. However, the food they had access to was the “terrible” quality meals provided by Evin Prison. Due to the confiscation of their belongings and financial constraints, their visits to the prison store to buy necessities were limited and always small in quantity. According to a former prisoner who was detained in Ward 1 during the time the Kurdish women were held, they often received leftover food, such as fruit scraps.
Before the Kurdish women and their children, there had been no recorded presence of children in the women’s ward of Evin Prison during the 2010s. Based on available information, around the spring of 2011, women imprisoned for common crimes were transferred to Qarchak and Kachouei prisons. For a while, political prisoners were also transferred or exiled to other prisons. At that time, there was talk of handing over or selling Evin Prison to the Tehran Municipality, but it never materialized.
In the 2000s, numerous reports were published about female activists who were imprisoned during various years of the decade. At that time, the inmates in the women’s ward of Evin Prison were mainly prisoners convicted of common crimes, including murder, drug offenses, theft, financial fraud, and sexual crimes. A small number of political prisoners were held among those convicted of these general crimes. In a detailed report published by Aasoo, Maryam Hossein Khah relays the story of a female prisoner who had to send her newborn child out of the prison due to constant exposure to cigarette smoke. Overcrowding, pollution, and the harsh environment that dominated the prison were key features of most reports from this period, which also mention the presence of children in the women’s ward of Evin Prison.
Our knowledge of the women’s ward in Evin Prison during the 1990s is quite limited. A female political prisoner who was incarcerated there at the time wrote about the many children held in a ward where women with addiction and other crimes were also imprisoned.
The 1980s are closely associated with the birth or presence of children of political prisoners in Evin Prison. However, despite the large number of newborns and toddlers in the prison at that time and more than four decades having passed, there are only a few accounts of these children. Anthropologist Shahla Talebi has written about these children and the role they played for their imprisoned mothers. In 2012, Sahar Delijani’s novel Children of the Jacaranda Tree was published, sharing her own experience as one of those born in Evin, presented in a fictional narrative. The book, originally published in English, has been translated into approximately 30 languages, including Persian. In 2019, Maryam Zaree’s documentary Born in Evin, which won the Perspektive Deutsches Kino award at the Berlin International Film Festival, explored her own experience and that of other children born in Evin Prison. The documentary also notes that some individuals chose not to share their stories, highlighting the discomfort many from this generation feel in recounting their experiences.
Over Two Decades of Children’s Presence in an Unprepared Ward
According to reports from former inmates, since the mid-2000s, the small daycare center that once existed in the women’s ward of Evin Prison is no longer available. In the late 2000s, an advisor to the Tehran Municipality claimed that this daycare center was among her achievements. However, research indicates that these daycare facilities, even if they exist, are far from what the public typically imagines a daycare should be. The lack of transparency and conflicting reports, coupled with the inability to independently verify, cast serious doubt on their existence and effectiveness.
Information from the 1990s about the daycare and the status of children in these prisons is limited. According to one former prisoner, a daycare existed in a ward where mothers struggling with addiction were held, and several infants and toddlers were present in that ward. This inmate had heard that the children’s presence was at the suggestion of UNICEF to help addicted mothers overcome their dependency, though this claim has not been verified, and UNICEF has not responded to inquiries regarding this matter.
Regardless of whether the children’s presence in these prisons was initiated by any specific organization or in accordance with existing laws, what has been consistently neglected is the “best interests of the children.” Keeping children in such environments, lacking adequate health and medical facilities, constitutes a blatant violation of their rights.
In the 2000s, before the crackdown on protests following the 2009 election and the designation of a specific area for political female prisoners, women with political and ideological charges were held in the general women’s ward of Evin Prison. One of these prisoners, in the mid-2000s, spoke about the presence of two children in a ward with approximately 70 to 80 adult prisoners. During this period, a female activist reported the sexual assault of a three-year-old girl in the women’s ward of Evin Prison. According to her, the signs of sexual abuse were visible on the child’s body and behavior, and the perpetrator was identified. However, they were released without any deterrent punishment. The Children of Imprisoned Parents International organization, in its research reports from 2019 and 2023, has also encountered cases of sexual abuse of children in other prisons in the country, including Qarchak Prison and women’s ward of Kachoui Prison.
Although part of the experience of Kurdish children and their mothers in Evin Prison in the late 2010s is shared with other children in previous years in this prison and others, the creation of security conditions, movement restrictions, and depriving children of some of their basic human needs—such as exposure to sunlight—connected to religious and ethnic discrimination, exposed these children and their mothers to greater harm, including skin diseases and vitamin deficiencies.
Evin Prison: State-Sponsored Child Abuse in the Capital
Decades of the presence of female prisoners, particularly mothers, in the infamous Evin Women’s Prison, located in a serene and affluent area in the northern part of Tehran, have repeatedly highlighted the systematic pressure on women and mothers, aimed at undermining their gender and motherhood roles. According to available reports, few achievements by political female prisoners in this prison, aimed at securing some of their rights as citizens, women, and mothers—such as meeting with their children on a separate day in a safer environment—were rescinded following changes in management and as a form of pressure on them. Based on my research, this basic right and possibility has not been provided to female prisoners in any other women’s prison, whether they are politically or ideologically charged or charged with general offenses.
According to what has been documented so far about this prison and women’s wards in other prisons across Iran, the concerns of activists regarding the health of pregnant women and the newborns currently held in Evin’s women’s ward are serious and well-founded.
The demand to address the situation of pregnant women and children in Evin Prison includes calls for the implementation of standards for the treatment of prisoners (Mandela Rules), the treatment of female prisoners (Bangkok Rules), the enforcement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and adherence to existing domestic laws of the Islamic Republic in this prison, as well as in prisons across the country.
Feature image is decorative; main source: Fars News Agency