Female political prisoners in Evin prison are suffering from illness and are in poor health. According to the families of political prisoners who met on Monday with women prisoners, during the last week most were sick and proper medical care was not provided to them.

The female political prisoners said they “Suffer from various illnesses, kidney problems, headaches, colds, high blood pressure, heart palpitation and……are among the problems they constantly suffer from .

They also said that the store in the women’s ward has stopped carrying fruits, meat and other important food items.

The prisoners said, “The store’s excuse for not carrying these items is that orders placed for these items are low and they can not carry such low amounts”.

It now has been two months that the female political prisoners have been deprived of fruits and vegetables.

On Monday, prison official disallowed the families to give personal hygiene items like shampoo and tooth brush to the prisoners.

The political prisoner families say, “The prisoners have placed an order for shampoo & other items with the prison’s store for a while. In the wake of the store refusing to fill the orders and the officials’ refusal to accept these items from us, what are these prisoners suppose to do?”

Talking about the problems in the women’s Ward, the families say, “The women are practically deprived of fresh air area. There is a very small courtyard that the women use to hang their clothes to dry. At times, the store in this Ward will not carry any meat, fruits or chicken for months while these are part of main food items.

For this reason and due to lack of proper nutrition, there has been a constant increase in illnesses among the women. These women were all healthy prior to incarceration.”

During the past three years, and after the 2009 presidential election, the female political prisoners’ ward has these recurring problems, but the officials refuse to do anything about them.”

The families of these political prisoners say, “We try not publicizing these problems and try to solve them by speaking with the authorities. But, day-by-day, these prisoners face more problems and their situation becomes worse.

They are banned from phone calls, they don’t have a proper space for fresh air time, they encounter many limitations that the male political prisoners don’t have, as though, even in prison, the women have to face more oppression.”

Currently there are 26 female political prisoners in Evin most of whom were arrested post-2009 presidential election.

Source: CHRR