Qarchak Prison ( fa, زندان قرچک, Zendân-e-Qarchak) is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

for women located in

Qarchak Qarchak ( fa, قرچک; also known as Qar chak) is a city and capital of Qarchak County, in Tehran Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It i ...

, in

Qarchak County Qarchak County ( fa, شهرستان قرچک) is in Tehran province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Qarchak. At the 2006 census, the region's population (as Qarchak District of Varamin County Varamin County ( fa, شهر� ...

, previously part of

Varamin County Varamin County ( fa, شهرستان ورامین) is in Tehran province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Varamin Varamin (; fa, ورامين, also Romanized as Varāmīn and Verāmin) is a city and capital of Varamin County, ...

, Tehran Province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

(30 km SSE of the capital). It is also called fa, زندان زنان ری, Rey Women Prison (

Shahr-e Rey Shahr-e Ray ( fa, شهر ری, ) or simply Ray (Shar e Ray; ) is the capital of Ray County in Tehran Province, Iran. Formerly a distinct city, it has now been absorbed into the metropolitan area of Greater Tehran as the 20th district of municip ...

prison), “Gharchak Women’s Prison“, Rey Penitentiary or

Varamin Varamin (; fa, ورامين, also Romanized as Varāmīn and Verāmin) is a city and capital of Varamin County, Tehran Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 218,991, and at the 2006 census, its population was 208,569, in 53,63 ...

prison.

Health and sanitation conditions

Health conditions are very poor inside Qarchak. There is no proper sewer. According to the NCRI Women's Committee, the prison infirmary was ill-equipped to deal with outbreaks of

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

and did not have masks or sanitary supplies for inmates.

Prisoners

The prison's seven sections contain more than 1400 prisoners, which is twice the nominal capacity. As of July 2020, 17 female political prisoners are being detained in Qarchak prison. On 23 May 2020, Soheila Hejab ( fa, سهیلا حجاب, Soheila Hijab), a 30-year-old law graduate sentenced to 18 years in prison for forming a group for women's rights and who had been summoned for that day to the Court of Appeals, was brutally arrested on leaving the hearing by

IRGC The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

agents, and taken to Qarchak. In June 2020, it was reported that political prisoners in Qarchak had been infected with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 26 July 2020, the Australian academic

Kylie Moore-Gilbert Kylie Moore-Gilbert is an Australian-British academic in Islamic studies. She was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute and has carried out research into revolutions in the Middle East, in particular Bahraini politics and prot ...

was moved from

Evin Evin is a neighbourhood in the north of Tehran. The district consists of an old section, filled with orchards and gardens of old houses, and a new section, with high rises and skyscrapers. It is adjacent to Shahid Beheshti University Shahid ...

to Qarchak. Moore-Gilbert was later returned to Evin and freed in November 2020. On 20 October 2020, human rights activist and lawyer

Nasrin Sotoudeh Nasrin Sotoudeh ( fa, نسرین ستوده) is a human rights lawyer in Iran. She has represented imprisoned Iranian opposition activists and politicians following the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential elections as well as prisoners sent ...

was moved to Qarchak from Evin prison.

Reactions

Qarchak prison is listed under Section 106 of the US's

Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a United States federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia. The bill was passed by the Senate on July 27, 2017, 98–2, after it passed the House 419 ...

(CAATSA) on the basis of extrajudicial killings, torture and other violations of human rights. On 7 December 2021, the

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

added Soghra Khodadadi (described as "the current director of Qarchak") to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. Individuals on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. The listing said Khodadadi "was responsible for ordering and directly participating in a violent attack on December 13, 2020 against prisoners of conscience in Ward 8 along with at least 20 other guards. According to publicly available reports, prison guards beat these female prisoners of conscience with batons and stun guns. Khodadadi ordered this attack in retaliation for the prisoners exercising their right to freedom of expression."

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Tehran Human rights abuses in Iran Prisons in Iran Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List Iranian entities subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions

Health and sanitation conditions

Prisoners

Reactions

See also

References