‘Blood Runs in Corridors, Sewage Flows in Cells’: Inside Iran’s Sepidar Women’s Prison
New Age Islam News Bureau
06 May 2025
· ‘Blood Runs in Corridors, Sewage Flows in Cells’: Inside Iran’s Sepidar Women’s Prison
· Educational Apartheid: Student Barred from Entering Classroom in UP, India, for Observing Hijab
· Bangladeshi Women’s Rights Opposed by Hardline Religious Groups
· Turkish-Cypriots Protest Rule Permitting Hijabs at High Schools
· Copenhagen-Based Imam Al-Sadiq Foundation Hosts Women’s Seminar On Hijab and Identity
· EU Urges Medical Education Access for Women in Afghanistan
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/sepidar-women-corridors-iran-educational/d/135448
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‘Blood Runs in Corridors, Sewage Flows in Cells’: Inside Iran’s Sepidar Women’s Prison
MAY 6, 2025
RoghayehRezaei
The women's ward of Sepidar Prison houses around 400 female inmates, mostly Arab, denied even the most basic human dignities afforded elsewhere in Iran’s penal system
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Blood runs down prison corridors. Sewage seeps beneath cell doors. Drugged women drift in and out of consciousness.
The women's ward of Sepidar prison, in southern Ahvaz, houses around 400 female inmates, mostly Arab, denied even the most basic human dignities afforded elsewhere in Iran’s penal system.
Here, a 14-year-old girl bleeds for months without access to proper sanitary supplies. Women must choose between hunger and humiliation. Every day begins with forced patriotic rituals and ends with the cries of those attempting to take their own lives.
This is the daily reality inside what former inmates describe as hell on earth - a place where, as one said, “no matter how much we talk about Sepidar’s women’s ward, it’s not enough.”
The facility, officially referred to by authorities as a “women’s counselingcenter,” consists of ten wards, each built initially to house 20–22 people.
Yet these wards routinely hold up to 40 prisoners each, with many forced to sleep on the bare floor for months due to a lack of beds.
What sets Sepidar apart from other Iranian prisons isn’t just the overcrowding - it’s the routine dehumanization of its predominantly Arab female inmates.
An investigation by IranWire, based on interviews with former prisoners, reveals a place where basic human rights are not only ignored but deliberately violated as part of the prison’s operational structure.
“The prison toilet drains clogged every day, and sewage water would flow into the wards,” says one former political prisoner.
The adds, “These women, despite imprisonment, misery, hunger, and separation from family, were forced to live in a place where sewage also overflowed. No matter how much we talk about Sepidar’s women’s ward, it’s not enough.”
Each day at Sepidar begins with a military-style morning ceremony.
Female prisoners must line up before receiving their meager breakfast rations to participate in a ritual reminiscent of barracks discipline.
They are required to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem and demonstrate respect for the flag before being allowed to eat.
“Women are forced to wear loose and long clothing. They are not allowed to leave their hair uncovered, even inside the ward, where everyone is female,” explains a former inmate.
“Imagine being kept in such terrible conditions, forced to sing the national anthem and participate in a flag ceremony at 8 AM - just like in a military barracks. This was our daily routine. After the ceremony, they would give us breakfast. Lights-out was at 9 PM, and we were forced to sleep.”
Hijab rules are strictly enforced throughout the facility, even in areas where only women are present.
Enforcing the headscarf in gender-segregated spaces reveals that the hijab rule is more about control than religion.
“Especially for political prisoners, when protests happen and people are arrested, they are very careful to prevent them from talking to former political prisoners,” says one source.
“The same was true for Baha’i girls. In this prison, crimes are not segregated. Sometimes 14- or 15-year-old girls are thrown in with murder suspects and end up hearing murder stories.”
The systematic deprivation of adequate nutrition forms another pillar of suffering at Sepidar.
Sources say prisoners are always hungry, surviving on barely enough food to stay alive.
“Throughout the week, meals included one serving of yatimcheh [a dish made with eggplant, tomato, and onion], one serving of pinto beans, macaroni, and chicken twice a month - if you were lucky, you’d get a piece of chicken on your plate,” recounts a former prisoner.
“The daily bread ration was two lavash flatbreads, which had to last for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There’s absolutely no fruit. In other prisons, they might get an apple or an orange twice a week.
“In Ahvaz, there’s no sign of fruit. Imagine a prisoner who couldn’t work, most of whom were family breadwinners, and many couldn’t even afford their own basic expenses. Under these conditions, they remained hungry.”
The prison canteen, which could offer supplemental nutrition, instead functions as another deprivation mechanism.
“Prisoners don’t have access to refrigerators. They don’t go shopping either, because the canteen has nothing.
“It opened twice a month and sold everything ten times the price, unaffordable for most."
“Imagine, sanitary pads that cost 2,000 tomans outside were 20,000 tomans inside,” explains a former inmate, describing how even basic necessities became luxuries behind Sepidar’s walls.
Perhaps most disturbing is the widespread use of psychiatric medications to subdue and control the female population.
According to one former political prisoner, “Mental illness is rampant in Sepidar. As soon as you said you couldn't take it anymore, they would prescribe a handful of pills and give them to you every day.
“My cellmate, Somayeh, was a mother separated from her child. I don’t know which pills they gave her, but she would sleep from morning until 8 PM, then wake up, eat, and go back to sleep until morning.
“She was never awake. Sometimes, she slept for two consecutive days. Those who had seen her when she first entered prison revealed she used to be very happy, cheerful, always laughing and joking - they destroyed her."
“When she woke up, she didn’t know what day it was. And she wasn’t the only one. Ninety percent of the prisoners were on tranquilizers.”
Chemical sedation seems common, with once-lively women rendered barely conscious within weeks.
In this environment of physical deprivation, psychological torture, and chemical sedation, suicide attempts are alarmingly frequent.
“Literally every day, one or two women would attempt suicide or self-harm,” reports a source, whose name is withheld for security reasons.
“The corridor had to be cleaned daily of blood. They would take the women to the clinic or outside to have their hands stitched. The psychological pressure on women in Sepidar is enormous.” The attempts show just how deep the despair runs in the facility.
Women are briefly treated for self-harm only to be returned to the very conditions that drove them to it.
Sewage systems frequently fail, causing wastewater to flood living areas.
Prisoners with infectious diseases - including skin conditions, tuberculosis, and hepatitis - are housed with the general population, creating a breeding ground for illness.
“You go to prison healthy and come out with a thousand problems. Many women are there with their children. Some had mental health issues - they’d send them to a psychiatric hospital, then bring them back to prison,” one source reveals.
For menstruating women, the situation is particularly dire.
“I was 14, and during interrogation by the Intelligence Department, the psychological pressure caused severe bleeding that lasted six months,” recounts a former prisoner.
“After all these years, I still have anemia. During my imprisonment, they gave me one package of sanitary pads the entire time. I was just a child, and they told me to use a cloth if it wasn’t enough.”
Sexual abuse is another horrific aspect of life in Sepidar, especially during interrogations. Women detained for alleged extramarital relationships are targeted.
“The prison guards constantly humiliate them,” says one source.
“There were girls charged with adultery or drug offenses whose hands and feet were broken during interrogation at the Ahvaz police headquarters."
“One 25-year-old woman charged with drug possession said she was severely beaten during interrogation at Ahvaz. Then, the interrogator came and squeezed her breasts. She said she told the judge, but the judge said she was lying.”
The abuse is systematic, not isolated.
“They asked degrading questions and demanded answers that were deeply abusive. The treatment of female detainees at the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court is cruel. Each woman carries a book’s worth of torture, verbal abuse, and sexual assault. Many wouldn’t even talk about it.”
In a place where communication might offer solace, Sepidar systematically restricts contact among prisoners and with the outside world.
For 400 inmates, there are only two telephones, located in a room locked at 3 PM daily. Women must stand in long queues for a chance at a few minutes' conversation with loved ones.
Even during these brief calls, privacy doesn’t exist. An informant listens to and reports conversations with the ward head and educational supervisor.
Political prisoners face additional isolation, with authorities taking special care to prevent communication between newly arrested protesters and established political detainees.
Similar restrictions apply to Baha'i prisoners and others whom the Islamic Republic considers particularly dangerous.
Civil activist and political prisoner SepidehQolian, who spent time in Sepidar, described the experience in her book 'Tilapia Sucks the Blood of Hur al-Azim' about these efforts to prevent prisoners from forming bonds.
“Hugging was forbidden in Sepidar. But our hearts beat for each other and each other’s embraces. The next day, I was having sweet tea and bread with Baran when they said, ‘Qolian, transfer.’”
Two women, according to IranWire’s sources, personally oversee this system of abuse: FatemehMirzaei, head of the women’s ward, and FatemehNeisi, the educational supervisor.
“Strict regulations and the humiliation of female prisoners happen under their supervision. They directly intervene to conceal the prison’s true face during judicial visits,” reports one source.
The reality of Sepidar starkly contrasts with official claims.
In a video published by Iranian media documenting a government visit to the prison, EnsiehKhazali, the deputy for women and family affairs of EbrahimRaisi's administration, claimed, "It is gratifying that the number of female prisoners is small."
In another interview with state media, she claimed, “The condition of prisons is even better than student dormitories.”
Sepidar operates with no adherence to the basic principles of criminal justice.
IranWire’s investigations show that in Sepidar prison, especially in the women's ward, the principle of segregation by crime is fundamentally not observed.
Authorities, citing the small number of inmates, house women convicted of violent crimes alongside those imprisoned for minor financial offenses.
“For example, there are women who took out loans and couldn’t repay them. That’s not even a crime - it’s poverty. But they brought those women and their young children and placed them next to convicted murderers,” one source said.
Teenage girls as young as 14 or 15 are housed with adult offenders, exposing them to accounts of violence and crime that compound their trauma.
Source: iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/special-features/140942-blood-runs-in-corridors-sewage-flows-in-cells-inside-irans-sepidar-womens-prison/
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Educational Apartheid: Student Barred from Entering Classroom in UP, India, for Observing Hijab
May 5, 2025
Representative Image
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A new controversy emerged from Uttar Pradesh after a video from Khalsa Girls Inter College in Meerut went viral on social media. The video shows a Muslim woman alleging that she was denied entry into her classroom for observing hijab.
The video shows the student trying to explain to the teacher that she was stopped at the entrance and told to remove Hijab in order to enter the classroom. The student can be heard saying, “I am being told to remove my Hijab before entering my classroom. This is unfair. I have been coming to college for many years wearing a hijab.”
The incident has triggered criticism from several Muslim groups and social media users. The student then went to the manager’s office to explain her ordeal where she was met with a female staff member who also asked her to remove the Hijab.
After the video went viral the college authority denied all allegations of discrimination and mentioned that several Muslim girls have been enrolled in the college and they face no discrimination in the campus. However, the student has asserted her allegations and has accused the school of humiliating her for practicing hijab.
Activists, lawyers and Muslim bodies came in support of the student and voiced their concerns about the discrimination and attacks on Muslims identity. The activists and Muslim groups on social media expressed their disappointment on how Muslim girls are being targeted repeatedly for practicing their faith.
Faizan Mustafa who is a legal scholar wrote on X, “Hijab is not a crime. Stopping a girl from attending school for wearing a hijab is nothing short of educational apartheid.”
Source: muslimmirror.com
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original Story
https://muslimmirror.com/muslim-student-barred-from-entering-classroom-in-khalsa-college-in-meerut/
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Bangladeshi Women’s Rights Opposed by Hardline Religious Groups
May 5, 2025
On Saturday, nearly 20,000 supporters of the Islamist organization Hefazat-e-Islam rallied in the streets of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, to protest, among other issues, proposed government reforms to support gender equality and women’s rights.
The protesters, who claimed that “men and women can never be equal,” were opposing reforms recommended by the country’s Women’s Affairs Reform Commission. The commission was established by Bangladesh’s interim government, which took office after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power following mass protests in August 2024.
The commission’s recent recommendations include calling for the government to criminalize marital rape; ensure the equal rights of all women regardless of their religion, ethnicity, and class, including by instituting a single family law; provide for equal parental rights for women; protect women’s right to inheritance; increase women’s parliamentary representation; protect the rights of sex workers; build a gender-based violence-free society; and empower women through education and skills development.
The commission aligned these recommendations with the country’s commitment to democracy and secularism, two of the Bangladeshi Constitution’s fundamental principles.
At the rally, Hefazat-e-Islam demanded an end to all activities they deem “anti-Islamic,” including gender equality, a position that contradicts the constitution and international human rights law. The group has lobbied to disband the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission and pledged to organize rallies across the nation on May 23 if their demands were not met.
The interim government, led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, should swiftly denounce these attacks on the fundamental human rights of women and girls in Bangladesh and give full consideration to adopting the commission’s recommendations.
The Bangladeshi government should comply with its obligations under international human rights law to ensure gender equality, including Bangladesh’s obligations as a state party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The government should also withdraw Bangladesh’s two remaining reservations to CEDAW.
Women and girls have played leadership roles throughout Bangladesh’s history, from the fight for independence in 1971 to the 2024 Monsoon Revolution, which saw the most widespread participation of women in the country’s history. Today’s period of political transition is another inflection point and a unique opportunity for Bangladesh’s government to strengthen its commitment to women’s rights. The government should not miss the chance to do so.
Source: hrw.org
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/05/bangladeshi-womens-rights-opposed-hardline-religious-groups
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Turkish-Cypriots Protest Rule Permitting Hijabs at High Schools
May 5, 2025
By TNH Staff
Several thousand Turkish-Cypriot demonstrators on the occupied side of the island protested a new regulation permitting students to wear the hijab at public high schools, but Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan said it won’t be stopped.
Legalizing the hijab in schools is part of a plan to “impose political Islam on society,” Turkish Cypriot secondary education teachers’ trade union leader Selma Eylem told protestors. “We are calling out to those who ignore our secular education and our secular society,” she was cited as saying, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Protestors chanted “Cyprus is secular, and will remain secular,” and “AKP (an abbreviation for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party,) get your hands off our children,” during the march.
In March, authorities on the occupied side amended a school disciplinary code to legalize the wearing of the hijab at public schools, after an eighth-grade student was barred from entering a Nicosia school because she was wearing a hijab. A video of the incident went viral. Middle schools will be permitted to adopt the rule at their discretion.
Turkish Cypriots have condemned the amendment, claiming that it threatens the community’s secular traditions and that it is the latest example of Turkey’s growing influence in the region, the report said.
“There are those with religious beliefs and those without. Some attend mosques, others do not. These are personal choices,” said Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar during a morning TV program about the regulation.
Erdoğan warned protesters not “to sow seeds of hatred” over their fears that his government is trying to Islamise one of the world’s most secular Muslim societies, which has drawn a ferocious response.
In a visit to the island, he said that, “Those who try to disrupt our brotherhood, to create a rift between us, and to sow the seeds of hatred … will not be successful,” he said as he inaugurated a new presidential residence and Parliament in the self-declared state.
“If you try to mess with our girls’ headscarves in the Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus, I am sorry, you will find us against you,” he said, using the name that only Turkey accepts as no other country in the world recognizes the occupied side.
Source: thenationalherald.com
https://www.thenationalherald.com/turkish-cypriots-protest-rule-permitting-hijabs-at-high-schools/
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Copenhagen-based Imam Al-Sadiq Foundation hosts women’s seminar on Hijab and identity
May 5, 2025
The Imam Al-Sadiq Foundation, affiliated with the Shirazi Religious Authority, organized a women’s cultural seminar in Copenhagen titled “Hijab, Identity, and Distinction,” attended by Muslim women from the local community.
In his opening remarks, Hujjat al-Islam Sheikh Abdul Hassan Al-Asadi—representative of the Shirazi Authority and head of the foundation—highlighted the religious and cultural significance of the hijab. Al-Asadi emphasized its presence across various faiths and called for promoting it as a moral value through cultural dialogue, especially in the face of modern challenges to Muslim women’s identity in Western societies.
The event featured contributions from several educated women who shared personal stories about wearing the hijab in European societies and the legal and social challenges they face. A parallel program for children was held during the session, and the event concluded with the distribution of gifts and traditional hijabs to attendees.
Source: shiawaves.com
https://shiawaves.com/english/grand-ayatollah-shirazi/123800-copenhagen-based-imam-al-sadiq-foundation-hosts-womens-seminar-on-hijab-and-identity/
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EU urges Medical Education access for women in Afghanistan
By Fidel Rahmati
May 6, 2025
The EU emphasized the importance of medical education access for Afghan women on International Midwives Day, aiming to improve healthcare.
On May 5, the European Union marked the International Day of the Midwife by emphasizing the critical role of Afghan midwives in reducing maternal and infant mortality. The EU highlighted that empowering midwives strengthens Afghanistan’s healthcare system and called for unrestricted access to medical education for women and girls.
The EU’s statement comes amid ongoing restrictions imposed by the Taliban, including a ban on women pursuing medical education, which has drawn widespread condemnation from international health organizations. These restrictions have exacerbated Afghanistan’s already dire maternal health crisis.
Afghanistan continues to have one of the highest maternal mortality rates globally, with 638 deaths per 100,000 live births. The World Health Organization reports that daily, 24 mothers and 167 infants die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.
The shortage of qualified female healthcare providers, particularly midwives, has been intensified by the Taliban’s policies. Many female medical professionals have left their positions due to harassment and restrictive regulations, leaving rural areas especially underserved.
International organizations, including the United Nations, warn that without immediate action to restore women’s access to medical education and employment, Afghanistan’s maternal health crisis will worsen. The EU urges the Taliban to lift educational bans and support the training and deployment of midwives to save lives and stabilize the healthcare system.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/eu-urges-medical-education-access-for-women-in-afghanistan/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/sepidar-women-corridors-iran-educational/d/135448