In a letter sent from Yazd Central Prison, Zeinab Jalalian, women's rights defender and the longest imprisoned woman prisoner in Iran, described the conditions of prisoners and herself in Iranian prisons and demanded that they should not remain silent. Zeinab Jalalian's letter reads: 

 

"Hello and warm greetings, 

 

Opposing this regime means putting your life and the lives of your loved ones in danger. The moment they find out you are against them, they fabricate charges and label you with heavy accusations just to eliminate you. And when they fail to achieve that goal, they bury us alive in prison for years like this through physical, emotional and psychological torture, discrimination, years of being denied phone calls and visits, arresting our loved ones, imprisoning them, and subjecting them to intense pressure over long periods. 

 

Naturally, one of the defining qualities of any freedom fighter is resilience. They keep trying to stay strong and maintain their morale, all for the sake of their cause. 

 

In a patriarchal society, women already endure countless hardships. But for women in prison, those hardships are multiplied, because imprisonment brings a different kind of pain. Being separated from your children, your partner, your parents, your family - losing all your freedom. 

 

When you are condemned to live in a place like prison, you witness so many forms of suffering and injustice inflicted on fellow inmates, and yet you can do nothing. That helplessness becomes another source of deep pain for me. It makes me sad. It brings me to tears. But I cannot do anything about it.

 

After nearly 20 years in a place like this, you are forced into a collective way of living. Diseases, skin conditions, mental and psychological issues come for you. Worst of all, the poor prison diet leads to a wide range of physical illnesses. And as a political prisoner, you are subject to even more restrictions. Even when a doctor diagnoses you and confirms you need medication, you receive no treatment. Years of such medical neglect have made my illness worse. The medication no longer works, and now the doctor has prescribed surgery. 

 

Despite the medical diagnosis clearly stating that I should be released due to my condition and undergo surgery, the prison authorities forwarded the report to the Legal Medicine Organisation. After a long wait, they responded by saying I am “fit to remain in prison”. 

 

Despite all this pain, suffering and illness, I am happy, because I have endured all of it in the pursuit of freedom. That means I stand on the right side of history. 

 

Yes, I said this regime buried us alive. But as Che Guevara once said, “They tried to bury us, they did not know we were seeds”, and we have sprouted. 

 

I call on all freedom-loving women and men around the world not to be indifferent to the suffering and oppression inflicted on our fellow human beings, for example the Iranian women and men fighters who were imprisoned in Evin Prison. 

 

It is heartbreaking that those same fighters who were once held in Evin — where the conditions were relatively better — have now been transferred to far worse facilities. So bad, in fact, that they do not even have a comfortable place to lay their heads. Their numbers are small, and their hygiene and food conditions are very poor. 

 

Remaining silent in the face of this injustice and the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic against our fellow fighters is nothing less than a seal of approval for this criminal regime. 

 

So let us say in one voice: No to executions. No to arrests. No to exile. No to gender discrimination. No to ethnic discrimination. No to discrimination based on political or religious beliefs. And no to this one-dimensional, criminal regime.

 

Greetings, 

 

Zeinab Jalalian"