Eight women political prisoners held in Tehran’s Evin Prison have been barred from meeting family members and lawyers following tighter security measures and pressure linked to collective protest activities inside the ward, according to information obtained by Iran International.
Shiva Esmaili, Golrokh Iraee, Sakineh Parvaneh, Forough Taghipour, Zahra Safaei, Marzieh Farsi, Elaheh Fouladi and Varisheh Moradi were denied visitation rights in recent weeks after participating in memorial gatherings and protest-related events inside the women’s ward, sources familiar with the situation said.
Prison authorities have also increased surveillance and patrols inside the ward, with officers entering cells daily and sometimes at night under the pretext of inspections, a source close to prisoners’ families told Iran International.
Women prisoners in Evin had for years marked political and ideological occasions through gatherings, songs, readings and commemorations for killed protesters and veteran activists, the source said. Prison officials have recently intervened directly in such activities and threatened participants, the source added.
The source said some women recently transferred to the ward were also warned by prison and security officials after attending a small number of the gatherings.
Prison staff have in recent months used insulting language toward detainees and threatened them with transfer to solitary confinement, another source familiar with conditions in the ward told Iran International.
Prisoners face solitary confinement threats
Ghazal Marzban, another woman prisoner in Evin, was recently held in solitary confinement for five nights after protesting the handling of her case, a source familiar with the situation said.
The women’s ward in Evin, often described by activists as a focal point of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, has repeatedly issued statements and organized protests over executions, arrests, economic hardship and the suppression of demonstrations in Iran.
Prisoners in the ward have also staged sit-ins and hunger strikes against death sentences in recent years, after which some faced punitive measures including restrictions on phone calls, visits and new legal cases.
A source close to prisoners’ families said the growing restrictions and threats of solitary confinement reflected efforts by prison and security authorities to silence dissent inside the ward.
Prisoner with tumors denied urgent treatment
Separate information obtained by Iran International shows that Mohtaram Parandin, an imprisoned artist and painter known as Mahshar, has been denied urgent medical treatment despite suffering from two tumors near the cerebellum and throat as well as severe heart disease.
A source familiar with her condition said prison doctors had warned that immediate surgery was necessary because the tumor near her cerebellum had affected her vision, speech and movement.
“The effects of the illness are visible in the way she walks and speaks,” the source said.
Despite recommendations from prison medical staff, authorities have not approved her transfer for treatment and have also rejected requests for medical leave and conditional release although she has served more than half of her sentence, the source added.
The source said documentation required for temporary medical leave had already been submitted to the prosecutor’s office.
Parandin, the mother of a teenage son, became the head of her household after the death of her husband. Her son also suffers from a chronic illness and has faced difficulties during her imprisonment.
Rights groups and prisoners’ families have for years accused Iranian prison authorities of denying political prisoners adequate medical care, with several detainees dying in custody after prolonged illness or delayed treatment.
Yet much of the international coverage surrounding Iran during this period has focused mainly on statements by officials of the Islamic Republic rather than the experiences of people living under the restrictions.
Businesses collapse
Hossein, a 33-year-old music teacher who previously held many of his classes online, said his work has effectively stopped since the beginning of the 12-day war in June.
“My students are inside and outside Iran, but because of the internet disruptions they can no longer attend classes,” he said. “My income has almost dropped to zero.”
Hossein said the economic pressure on his family has become severe.
“The Islamic Republic does not care about us, and the world also seems not to care about the swamp we are struggling in,” he said.
His wife, Mohaddeseh, used Instagram to sell homemade sweets and tomato paste before the restrictions intensified.
“We spent four years trying to move our lives forward despite all the difficulties, but these 70 days destroyed everything we had,” she said. “We spent the savings we had put aside to buy a house, and now we do not know how we will pay rent and living costs.”
Internet; a class-based commodity
Shahla, a 56-year-old mother of a son with autism, said online gaming had been one of the few calming spaces available for her child before the internet restrictions deepened.
“My son can no longer play online,” she said. “He is full of stress and aggression now and constantly clashes with us.”
Shahla criticized the rising cost of stable internet access and what she described as the “class-based” nature of internet availability in Iran.
“Do the people who turned the internet into a class privilege understand what families are going through?” she said.
She said she had spent years trying to create a calmer life for her son through counseling and therapy programs, but described the past 70 days as “a real hell.”
‘Not seen grandchildren for 70 days’
Mozhdeh, a 70-year-old retiree, said she was recently told to install the Iranian messaging app Baleh to book doctor appointments and receive medical test results.
“To register for a doctor’s appointment, I now have to install an application that people have repeatedly warned about in terms of security,” she said.
Mozhdeh’s children and grandchildren live outside Iran. Before the restrictions, she said she spoke with them daily through video calls. Now she relies mainly on short phone conversations.
“I am retired and cannot afford expensive internet access,” she said. “Why should people be forced into these conditions without any serious reaction?”
Public discussion about Iran, she said, often focuses almost entirely on the nuclear issue while the impact of restrictions on ordinary people receives little attention.
“If another country had cut internet access for 70 days and carried out arrests and executions every day, the global reaction would certainly be different,” she said.
Restrictions hit women-led businesses
Mahan, a fashion designer who has worked with Baluch women producing traditional needlework, said the restrictions have severely affected independent online businesses.
“For more than 70 days, we have not been able to register any new orders,” she said. “I am not only worried about myself. I am worried about the women whose only source of income depended on this work.”
Online sales, she said, had helped improve the economic situation of the women she worked with before the restrictions began.
Living in online silence
As internet restrictions in Iran entered a third month, many residents say they feel their voices are not being heard.
From education and healthcare to business activity and family communication, internet access has become an essential part of daily life for millions of people in Iran, residents say.
But amid political and security debates surrounding Iran, the experiences of people paying the daily cost of the restrictions continue to receive far less attention.
Shakourzadeh, Mizan said, had been recruited into a major scientific organization active in the satellite sector because of his expertise, but did not identify the institution or provide evidence supporting the espionage allegations.
The judiciary-linked outlet accused the 29-year-old of transferring classified information to “enemy services.”
Shakourzadeh, a master’s holder in aerospace engineering and graduate of Iran University of Science and Technology, was arrested in 2025 by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence organization on charges of spying and cooperating with hostile countries.
Rights groups said he spent nine months in solitary confinement before his execution.
Rights groups warned execution was imminent
The Tavana educational initiative reported on May 8 that Shakourzadeh had been transferred from Tehran’s Evin prison to Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj for the implementation of his death sentence.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency and the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights also warned that his execution could be carried out imminently after the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
Iran Human Rights called on May 9 for an immediate halt to the execution, saying Shakourzadeh had been moved to Ghezel Hesar prison on May 7.
The judiciary has not released details about his trial proceedings or legal representation.
Executions accelerate after war
Iran International reported on May 7 that at least 28 political prisoners were executed in the 48 days following March 18.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said the Islamic Republic carried out at least 612 executions in the first four months of 2026, averaging at least five executions a day over a 117-day period.
At least 21 protesters and political prisoners have been executed over the past month, according to rights monitors, including several people arrested during the January 2026 protests.
Among the latest cases were Baluch political prisoner Amer Ramesh, protester Erfan Kiani and political prisoner Soltanali Shirzadi Fakhr, who were executed on April 26, 25 and 23 respectively.
Mehdi Farid, identified by Iranian media as a manager in the passive defense committee of a sensitive state organization, was executed on April 22 on charges of spying for Israel.
Aqil Keshavarz, Javad Naeimi, Bahram Choobi Asl, Babak Shahbazi, Rouzbeh Vadi, Majid Mosayebi and Kourosh Keyvani were also among those executed over the past year on espionage-related charges.
Annual report shows surge in executions
Iran Human Rights and the group Together Against the Death Penalty said in a joint annual report released in late April that executions in Iran rose by 68% in 2025.
The groups said at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran in 2025 in cases linked to ordinary criminal and political charges, compared to at least 975 recorded executions in 2024.
Rights organizations say authorities have intensified repression of political and civil activists since the outbreak of the war on February 28 and accelerated executions after the ceasefire in what campaigners describe as an effort to spread fear and deter dissent.
