Prisoners in Iran are suffering through bitter winter weather with inadequate heating and insufficient medical care which is contributing to illness, information obtained by Iran International revealed.
At Lakan prison in Rasht, political prisoners held in the Misaq Ward are in quarantine-like conditions and are isolated and poorly equipped to weather cold winter months.
The small yard, barely four square meters in size, is surrounded by tall concrete walls topped with metal mesh, offering little in the way of ventilation or natural light.
Inside, the metal beds are short and lack mattresses, forcing prisoners to either sleep hunched over or on the damp, cold cement floors.
With the arrival of winter, the situation has worsened, with inmates forced to use thin, inadequate blankets to shield themselves from low temperatures just above the freezing point.
Despite these efforts, illness—ranging from colds to more serious flu outbreaks—has become widespread, especially among prisoners with preexisting health conditions.
Some of the men in the section are middle-aged and suffer from chronic joint pain, yet they are compelled to wash with ice-cold water as the ward lacks hot water and functional heaters. Frequent power outages only exacerbate the problem, as the prison’s heating system does not have a backup power supply, leaving inmates without warmth day and night.
Prison regulations make matters worse. Clothing from families is only accepted twice a year, and the garments must meet strict standards, with hats, zippers and decorations banned.
With the onset of cold weather, the prison administration has shut down the office responsible for distributing warm clothing, declaring that it is now impossible to provide such items to the inmates.
Conditions in the women’s section of Lakan prison, where around 150 female prisoners are held, are similarly grim.
According to Forough Saminiya, a women’s rights activist and prisoner in Lakan, the women’s quarters are cramped, and the kitchen only contains a samovar, leaving prisoners with little means to feed adequately feed themselves.
The prison food is described as substandard and barely provides sufficient nutrition.
Saminiya also highlighted the exploitative nature of the prison shop, which has been monopolized by a single individual.
With over 150 regular customers, the shop charges exorbitant prices for essential goods. For those with specific dietary needs—such as Saminiya, who suffers from diabetes—the shop offers little to accommodate their conditions.
“Maintaining a proper diet in Lakan Prison is impossible,” she said, lamenting the lack of vegetables and the need to avoid starch.
Systemic Abuse in Qarchak prison
Across the country in Qarchak Prison near Tehran, the conditions for women and children have also become increasingly dire.
Jila Baniyaghoob, a journalist and women’s rights activist, reported that almost all of the prisoners have fallen ill with colds, and there is a shortage of medicine.
Sick prisoners are only given two antibiotic capsules, an inadequate remedy for the health issues. In addition, the prison’s medical facilities are under-resourced, with the number of available medical visits severely limited—only five prisoners per ward are allowed to see the doctor at a time.
Baniyaghoob also pointed out the water shortages in Qarchak, where drinking water has been cut off for several days. "Clean water has been cut off for several days. Each prison ward, with over a hundred prisoners, has only one tap of clean water, which is used for brushing teeth, washing dishes, and drinking," she said.
The heating system in the prison is unreliable, leaving inmates to endure near freezing temperatures, especially in the winter. Despite these conditions, prison authorities prevent families from providing extra clothing or necessary items for warmth.
Qarchak Prison, situated in a desert region, has long been described as a symbol of the systematic human rights violations within Iran's prison system.
In its report, the Iran Human Rights Organization recently condemned the facility as a “hell for women and children.” Originally a poultry farm, the prison has been converted into overcrowded wards that lack basic amenities, such as adequate ventilation, safe drinking water, and sufficient toilets.
Prisoners are forced to endure unsanitary conditions, with vermin including cockroaches, mice and even poisonous spiders inhabiting the cells.
The authorities’ failure to address these issues has prompted growing international concern.
Human rights organizations continue to call for accountability, urging the Iranian government to respect the basic rights of prisoners, particularly political detainees, who face disproportionate hardships in an already overburdened system.
Her anguish mirrors the conflicted emotions of many Iranians following the events in Syria. For decades, their government funneled financial and military support to prop up Bashar al-Assad and his police state. And yet the much-feared dictatorship unraveled in less than ten days.
Fatemeh is 36. She’s been jailed twice in the past five years, each time for a few months. Like many other Iranians struggling with economic hardship, she doesn’t approve of giving money to the so-called Axis of Resistance in general. But to see with her own eyes the horrors that money bought repulsed her.
“I’ve seen countless images of Nazi death camps and other dictators’ prisons, but those feel like history. These are live broadcasts from the depths of hell,” Fatemeh says pointing at her laptop.
The fall of Assad has sparked hope for many Iranians that the Islamic Republic could be next. The events of the last few months, including the battering of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel, has punctured the high-flying rhetoric of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. His air of invincibility is gone, the posturing notwithstanding.
"I’ve been arguing for a while that the Islamic Republic cannot be toppled because it’s cruel enough to jail and kill as many as it takes to survive," said Bahador, 40.
"My reference point was always Assad and his survival. But he’s gone now. And I can’t help thinking ‘what if’?”
Bahador owns a small company and—in relative terms—is well off. He says his friends call him Glum after the character in the cartoon Gulliver’s Travels who famously said "it’s hopeless" and "it will never work."
“I stopped hoping after the 2022 protests were crushed,” Bahador explains, “but the ecstasy you see in Syria these days is contagious. It’s hard not to dream again.”
He qualifies his optimism immediately, of course, noting the possibility that radical Islamists could take over Syria. He says he cannot help his fear of disappointment, which compels him to hedge his best hopes.
Still, you can tell that he is, indeed, hopeful. And he’s not alone.
"Since the first videos from Syria’s prisons surfaced, I can’t stop imagining that moment when the prison doors open and people walk free.” This is Mehdi, a sales assistant in an insurance company, who unlike Bahador dares to speak his dreams.
“I picture myself in their place—that moment of unconditional freedom, shared with everyone else, leaving no one behind. I really hope we get to see this. But I can’t stop thinking about the thousands that have been killed or gone missing under this system.”
The events in Syria have rekindled hope, but also shocked many. While the brutality of Assad’s regime was no secret, the full extent of its machinery of repression, especially in Sednaya prison, is beyond imagination.
And it has raised uncomfortable questions about prisons in Iran.
Many fear that similar horrors might exist here in Tehran or other cities, hidden from public view. The Islamic Republic is quite brazen about its actions. It openly executes and convicts dissidents, often in breach of its own laws and processes.
Still, Syria’s revelations have troubled many activists that the brutality we see may only be part of the story.
Past nightmares aside, the Syrian experience is closely watched in Iran for hints of what the future may hold.
Debates rage on social media. Some warn that Syria’s revolution could end like Iran’s, leading to new forms of oppression. Others argue that the Syrians are miles ahead already, managing a peaceful transition, not rushing to execute former officials as Iran’s revolutionaries did in 1979.
Arash, a 29-year old crypto-trader, captures the irony of shifting narratives.
"For years we were warned that Iran could become another Syria. Now we should warn Syrians not to become another Iran. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Arash says, shaking his head.
“Every time we protested, they’d flaunt so-called security: ’appreciate that you’re safe in this country,’ they said. And we all know how fragile that security is.”
He’s referring to the Israeli airstrikes and other operations inside Iran.
For now, fears of a war with Israel have eased among Iranians. The saber-rattling has somewhat faded with Assad’s fall. In its stead, we see gentle moves to build a functioning relationship with Syria’s new rulers.
The will of the Syrian people will be respected, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The irony!
The significance of the moment is hard to overstate: a young woman raising her voice in song in an open space just as greying men in closed rooms pass laws demanding women and girls like her live as they dictate or face punishment.
Politicians and philosophers in eras past clearly warned of the affront to society such brute measures represent.
Under Iran’s new hijab law, women and even teenage girls face heavy fines, travel bans, and ultimately imprisonment if they do not follow a strict, arbitrary dress code. A government that enacts such a law seeks to exert total control over its citizens. This is not a law about clothing; it is a tool for suppression of human dignity.
The scope of this law is unprecedented. Minors as young as nine years old can face fines or detention in juvenile facilities for noncompliance. Social media influencers, businesses and even parents of offenders are held accountable, creating a web of fear and enforcement.
Surveillance measures extend to digital spaces, requiring platforms to remove noncompliant content or face punitive actions. The aim is to crush dissent and—perhaps more disturbingly— to correct any ideological deviation.
The law evokes George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, where surveillance extends not only to actions but also to thoughts and identities. The legislation seeks to enforce not just outward compliance but inward conformity, leaving no room for personal freedom or dissent.
Control is imposed by surveillance and punishment, targeting families, businesses, and entire communities. Women who choose to wear attire deemed inappropriate by the state risk being charged with “corruption on earth,” a charge that can carry the death penalty.
Businesses, from local shops to online platforms, are fined or shut down if they fail to report or enforce compliance among employees and customers.
This flies in the face of societal changes in Iran. Young Iranians appear to be convinced more than ever that individuals are the best judges of their own lives. Having grown up under the Islamic Republic, they seem to know by instinct what the English philosopher John Stuart Mill said in On Liberty: that their freedom to make personal decisions must be protected unless it directly harms others.
The Hijab law, however, does the opposite—it strips away personal choice under the guise of moral guardianship, violating a core tenet of human dignity.
Laws are meant to protect freedoms, safeguard dignity and promote societal justice. A law that fails to uphold justice, as Henry David Thoreau would say, is not a law at all, but a tool of oppression. The Hijab law is that exactly, violating the dignity and autonomy of individuals.
The social consequences of this law are equally alarming. Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, warned of the dangers of laws designed to pit citizens against one another.
By mandating surveillance and encouraging individuals to report alleged violations within their communities, the Hijab law fosters mistrust and undermines social cohesion. This dynamic creates a society where neighbors become informants, and fear replaces solidarity.
Despite these oppressive measures, citizens are not powerless. Thoreau believed that resistance to unjust laws is a moral imperative.
Silence in the face of injustice, he argued, equates to complicity. The Hijab law, which flagrantly violates fundamental freedoms, calls for collective opposition. Defending the right to freedom of dress and personal choice is not merely an act of defiance but a stand for justice and human dignity.
In a society where women are jailed or executed for the simplest acts of autonomy, Parastoo’s voice resonated as a symbol of resistance, courage, and the irrepressible human spirit. Accompanied by male bandmates who stood in solidarity rather than domination, they showcased the power of collective defiance against tyranny.
This act of rebellion was a vivid reminder that even within the confines of authoritarianism, the spirit of freedom can shine, emboldening others to challenge unjust laws and envision a future where justice and dignity prevail.
The question for us Iranians and the global community is clear: will we stand idly by, or will we follow Parastoo—and many before her— to confront this affront to freedom and justice?