Zeynab Jalalian ( fa, زينب جلاليان; born March 10, 1982 in

Dim Qeshlaq Dim Qeshlaq-e Olya ( fa, ديم قشلاق عليا, also Romanized as Dīm Qeshlāq-e ‘Olyā; also known as Dem, Dem Qeshlāq, and Dīm Qeshlāq) is a village in Chaybasar-e Shomali Rural District, Bazargan District, Maku County, West Azerbai ...

Maku County Maku County ( fa, شهرستان ماکو) is in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Maku. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 174,578 in 39,765 households. Retrieved 2 November 2022 The follo ...

) is a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Iranian who has been convicted a

mohareb In Islamic law, ''hirabah'' is a legal category that comprises highway robbery (traditionally understood as aggravated robbery or grand larceny, unlike theft, which has a different punishment), rape, and terrorism. Ḥirābah ( ar, حرابة) is ...

and sentenced to death by an

Islamic Revolutionary Court Islamic Revolutionary Court (also Revolutionary Tribunal, ''Dadgahha-e Enqelab''Bakhash, Shaul, ''Reign of the Ayatollahs'', Basic Books, 1984, p.59-61) (Persian language, Persian: دادگاه انقلاب اسلامی) is a special system of cour ...

for allegedly being a member of the Kurdish militant group PJAK, which she denies. Jalalian's sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
Human rights organizations have condemned Jalalian's verdict, torture, conditions of incarceration and the inattention to her medical care.

Biography

When Jalalian was ten years old, she ran away from home because her parents would not allow her to go to school.

Arrest

Jalalian was arrested in March 2008 in the Kurdish city of

Kermanshah Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...

and transferred to the detention center of the Intelligence Ministry. Her trial before the Court of First Instance took place in December 2008; after conducting a summary trial, the Court found Jalalian guilty and sentenced her to death, on charges of being a member of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), a banned Kurdish group: based on her alleged membership of that Kurdistan political party, she was accused of fighting God (mohareb) and given the death penalty.Iranian Judicial Officials Suggest Kurdish Prisoner Will Get Temporary Leave if She Agrees to Televised "Confession"

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran The Center for Human Rights in Iran (formerly the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran; ICHRI) is an American non-government organization that aims to promote human rights in Iran. The group started in late 2007 when several human right ...

(February 9, 2016). (The Revolution court in Kermanshah conducted a brief trial, without due diligence and proper legal representation, lasting only a few minutes. Jalalian was ill, due to prison conditions and torture. She did not have any lawyer to defend her. The Court told her: "You are a God's enemy and you have to be hanged very soon".) Jalalian has denied the charges. Her death sentence was confirmed by the Iranian Supreme Court in November 2009. On June 28, 2010, her family stated that in her last phone call, "which was a month ago, Zeynab has mentioned that she is held in Evin Prison". Since that time, her family or her lawyers had not been able to receive any further information, the authorities responding that her file had been lost. In an interview with the

, published on July 1, 2010, Iranian lawyer Khalil Bahramian talks about him being refused to visit Ms Jalalian in prison. In 2010, after being incarcerated into section 209 of the Evin prison for five months, and after a meeting with Tehran Public Prosecutor, Jalalian was transferred back to Kermanshah prison. The Supreme Court of Iran has reduced Jalalian's sentence to life imprisonment. In December 2011, Ms. Jalalian contacted her lawyer to inform him that, according to prison authorities, her sentence had been reduced to life imprisonment. In Kermanshah prison, Zeynab Jalalian was verbally informed by judicial authorities that her death sentence had been commuted to imprisonment.

Denied treatment

In April 2016, the Office of the

High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

(UN Human Rights Working Group on Arbitrary Detention) issued an official request to the Islamic Republic of Iran to release Zeinab Jalalian immediately, as the deprivation of her liberty is arbitrary, being in contravention of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

(UDHR) and the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, fr ...

(ICCPR). The Working Group also considers that an adequate remedy would be to accord Jalalian an enforceable right to compensation in accordance the ICCPR.
Indeed, Jalalian was being subjected to torture by the Iranian authorities and was denied access to treatments and specialized medical care despite her deteriorating health in Khoy prison, West Azerbaijan Province. She has several medical conditions, including a heart problem and a severe dental infection.

Hunger Strike

Zeinab Jalalian, along with nine prisoners of ordinary offences, went on hunger strike in protest to being deprived of weekly visits and basic prison facilities on August 4, 2018. The strike ended the day after with no result.

COVID-19

In early June 2020, Ali Jalalian, the father of Zeynab Jalalian, told the Kurdistan Human Rights Network she was being held in quarantine since April 29, 2020 at

Gharchak Women's Prison Qarchak Prison ( fa, زندان قرچک, Zendân-e-Qarchak) is a prison for women located in Qarchak, in Qarchak County, previously part of Varamin County, Tehran Province, Iran (30 km SSE of the capital). It is also called fa, زندا ...

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 53,639 ...

and has been diagnosed 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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. In the Gharchak prison, health and food standards are not observed. The Ministry of Intelligence has not allowed her to be taken to a hospital outside the prison.
In late July 2020, ''Human Rights in Iran'' indicated that Jalalian had been transferred to Kerman prison. She is in poor health.
On September 24 2020, she was relocated to Dizel Abad Prison in

.
On November 10 2020, Jalalian informed her family in a 2-minute phone call that she had been transferred to

Yazd Yazd ( fa, یزد ), formerly also known as Yezd, is the capital of Yazd Province, Iran. The city is located southeast of Isfahan. At the 2016 census, the population was 1,138,533. Since 2017, the historical city of Yazd is recognized as a Wor ...

Prison and that she had been beaten and verbally abused along the way.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jalaliyan, Zeynab Living people Iranian Kurdish women Iranian prisoners and detainees Iranian torture victims Prisoners sentenced to death by Iran 1982 births Violence against women in Iran