A collective statement of women and children activists and political and civil activists about the dire situation of female prisoners, especially Saada Khadirzadeh and her baby daughter Solina (Ala)
Be their voice
Thursday, 10 September 2022
Along with the news of the horrific suicide attempt of Saada Khadirzadeh, one of the Kurdish political prisoners in the women’s ward of Urmia Central Prison on 27 August 2018, and the subsequent airing of parts of her confession on television, along with the denial of the news of her suicide attempt by Mizan News Agency, the official media outlet of the Judiciary. The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to hold the aforementioned court on 2 September 2022 online and the plaintiff threatened to kill her, and following these events, the leaked audio file on 5 September 2022, this Kurdish political prisoner announces that she attempted suicide, under a lot of mental and emotional pressure and has attempted suicide several times. Also, she admits in this audio file that the video that was recently broadcasted by Mizan, the official website of the Judiciary, was from a few days before his suicide attempt.
These alarming events, including the lack of attention to the special needs of female prisoners, the number of women in prison exceeding capacity, the violation of the rights of female prisoners and double discrimination against female prisoners, reveal the need for society to pay more attention to this group of prisoners. We are reminded that the situation of women prisoners should be taken into consideration more than in the past. Also, the suicide attempt of Saada Khadirzadeh in the women’s ward of Urmia prison became a reason to express our warning and concern about the dire situation of female prisoners in general and Saada Khadeirzadeh in particular in the prisons of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Torture houses called prisons
While Saada Khadirzadeh spent most of her pregnancy in inhuman conditions, under pressure and torture, in temporary and indeterminate detention and under interrogation, after going through the interrogation process and despite the deteriorating health condition and the lack of medical care and the high population density in the Urmia prison, this new-mother, as a prisoner, needed special medical care, was kept in the women’s ward of this prison as a normal prisoner with no medical care or any extra facilities to care her baby daughter.
According to the audio statements of Saada Khadirzadeh, the prisoner’s mother, she was taken “hostage” by the security agencies in order to put pressure on her husband, and she requests to “be my voice, I have no one to follow up on my work.” In order for her voice to be heard and to protest against her illegal arrest and the lack of consideration of her demands in May and while she was eight months pregnant, she announced a hunger strike and confession under the psychological torture, verbal harassment of a sexual nature and pressure from the security agencies, forced disclosure and declares: “The security officers gave me an immoral offer”
Despite enduring all the sufferings, Saada Khadirzadeh, the prisoner’s mother, while the condition of the mother and the fetus in her stomach was very serious and her hands and feet were swollen, finally on Monday, 30 June 2022, for less than 24 hours and only for surgery. Caesarean section is transferred to one of the medical centers in Urmia and she gives birth to her baby. Unfortunately, her family was not with her and they had no information about her health status. – He was in prison until three hours before giving birth.
It should be mentioned that more than two months have passed since the birth of her baby daughter Sulina (Ala), she has not received the permission to register her daughter’s birth in the official offices and registration office for birth certificate.
This deprivation and violation of the rights of Solina (Ala) baby and Saada Khadirzadeh for not registering her birth on thr part of the security institutions with the registry office of the prisoners and the judiciary is a gross violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the signatories of this convention.
What do we want
We are a group of women’s rights activists and children’s rights activists, sexual and gender equality activists, human rights activists, journalists and political and social activists, in addition to condemning any type of torture and psychological pressure to obtain forced and televised confessions and scenario-building and hostage-taking for prisoners. We express our concern about the neglect of the rights of imprisoned women, especially women who are subjected to double and multi-faceted discrimination, and we demand the unconditional release of Saada Khedirzadeh and her two-month-old daughter Sulina (Ala) and all imprisoned women. We also like to raise awarness that thesepolitical women prisoners in women prisons who pose no danger to the society are being imprisoned along with drug smugglers and murderers and being interogated brings them to the suicide attempt as Saada Khadirzadeh, the new-mother, in the women’s ward of Urmia Prison acted under the deplorable conditions of human rights and the violation of the rights of prisoners in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a sign incarserations in an inappropriate conditions. We know the existence of prisons and the institutionalization of forced confessions through physical and inhumane torture in the stages of arrest, interrogation and trial. We also demand that the international communities and institutions protecting children’s rights be aware of the violation of the rights of Sulina (Ala), Saada Khadirzadeh’s baby, while being held by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its accountability for the Convention of Childeren’s Right.
English (UK) 
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