Lack of International Support Hinders Success of Protest by Female Prisoners in Iran

By Alison Mintoff, 1L

In October 2012, nine prisoners in the women’s wing of Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin Prison went on a hunger strike to protest abuses they faced at the hands of prison authorities and guards. The female prisoners, who included political activists and journalists, were being held in the prison on convictions related to the mass street protests which followed the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Faced with continuing verbal and physical abuse, the women undertook this collective action to defend their human rights and to put pressure on the prison authorities for a formal apology. Their actions, which culminated in a seven-day hunger strike, have gone all but unnoticed by the international community.

Many of the women imprisoned at Evin face charges related to their individual participation in the Iranian women’s rights movement to end discrimination against women in Iranian law. The participants of the hunger strike are serving time for offences including “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “spreading propaganda against the system”, with prison sentences ranging from one to ten years. Their arrests appear to be in violation of various provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which Iran has signed and ratified), including the right to a fair and public hearing and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

In Evin, prisoners can be interrogated for many weeks at a time, and held in solitary confinement for months. After being released back into the main ward, women are often denied phone privileges, necessary medical care, and family visits. The hunger strike was provoked by an unannounced inspection of the women’sward,duringwhichprisonerswereallegedlysubjected to humiliating and degrading body searches, physical abuse, and verbal insults. What happened during those few hours prompted a united outcry from dozens of female detainees. They wrote an open letter demanding a formal apology from the prison authorities, guarantees against similar raids in the future, and general improvements in their treatment. Nine of these women took the extra step of going on a hunger strike in an effort to achieve their goals.

The hunger strike at Evin caught the attention of human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. However, unlike other higher profile detention cases, such as that of prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, that were picked up by major news networks, this action went relatively unnoticed by the global media and key international political and human rights figures.

The international attention to Sotoudeh’s case stands in stark con- trast to that given to the nine hunger strikers. Sotoudeh was arrested in September 2010 and subsequently convicted of similar offenses as the women on hunger strike, including spreading propaganda and acting against national security. She was sentenced to six years to be served in Evin Prison. To protest against her prison conditions and sanctions placed on her family, Sotoudeh began a hunger strike on October 17, 2012. Sotoudeh’s story sparked a joint call for proper treatment and her uncondi- 

tional release from six major human rights organizations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. Major news networks such as BBC and The New York Times ran stories covering her hunger strike.

Ten days into her hunger strike, pressure from the international community built and Sotoudeh was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – the European Union’s most prestigious human rights award, given to international figures such as Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. This brought much-needed attention and legitimacy to her cause.

After 49 days, the judicial authorities agreed to remove travel restrictions on Sotoudeh’s young daughter. With this key demand met, Sotoudeh ended her hunger strike. Human rights activists, including Ebadi, labelled this accomplishment a major victory, not only for Sotoudeh, but for all Iranian political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

The hunger strike of the nine women at Evin, however, did not gain such international attention. Unlike Sotoudeh, they were not successful in having their demands met. They failed to achieve more humane treatment within the prison, and did not receive an apology or acknowledgement from authorities for their alleged abuses of power. At the urging of medical officials, the hunger strike was abandoned after seven days; it has been reported that the women are instead pursuing legal action against the prison guards.

The comparison between Sotoudeh’s hunger strike and that of these nine women demonstrates that, in the fight for better treatment of women in Evin prison, international support from state representatives, global media, and human rights organizations will play a significant role.

It remains to be seen what, if any, relief the Evin women’s legal action will bring. Unfortunately, and maybe not surprisingly, there has not been any further media attention given to the women’s progress or whether the conditions inside the notorious prison have improved for its female prisoners.