June 5, 2023

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On Sunday, June 4 renowned Iranian prisoner of conscience and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, recently profiled in the New York Times, reported that the health of fellow political prisoner Nahid Taghavi had seriously deteriorated and requires immediate medical attention.

Mohammadi calls attention to the fact that "The officials of [Iran’s] judiciary branch push sick prisoners to the maximum possible limit, to the point of the loss of health, torment, and deprivation. The life of political prisoner Nahid Taghavi is in danger…. How long will this harassment continue?"

Taghavi's daughter, Mariam Claren, told the International Emergency Campaign (IEC): "We are deeply concerned about Narges Mohammadi's report on my mother’s health. If the Islamic Republic doesn't kill the people in the street or hang them, they let them slowly die in prison. I ask all people around the world to be my mother's voice and the voice of all political prisoners in Iran. Demand my mother's release! Don’t lean on your governments! History and recent events have shown us that the so-called democratic governments only care about business, not the people."

"We are calling for a global outcry to demand Nahid Taghavi be immediately released on medical furlough so she can receive proper treatment," says IEC spokesperson Dolly Veale. "Denial of medical care is a form of torture that Iran's theocratic, inhumane regime systematically carries out."

Nahid Taghavi: Arrested, Railroaded, Now Medically Tortured

Nahid Taghavi is a 68-year-old German-Iranian citizen who suffers from diabetes and hypertension. After her arrest in October 2020, she was interrogated for some 1,000 hours, all without legal counsel.

Amnesty International declared her and British-Iranian citizen Mehran Raoof, who was also arrested then, prisoners of conscience, “detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association.” Amnesty called for their immediate, unconditional release.

In August 2021, after a sham trial, she was convicted along with Raoof, who is also still being held, and sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison. In 2022, Taghavi was released on a brief medical leave but was forced to return to prison before she could complete the medically necessary course of treatments.

Mohammadi reports Taghavi "is in so much pain that you can clearly see the pain on her face. She gets out of her bed with difficulty, goes to the hospital and is injected with a strong painkiller and returns to her bed. I am used to seeing Nahid several times a day with a cigarette pack and a cup of coffee in the yard with an open face full of love and deep and sharp discussions."

Taghavi "spent two hundred and twenty days in a small solitary cell, alone, with three blankets," Mohammadi writes, and "Lack of light, air, space for movement, poor quality food, deprivation of medical and health care and history of lumbar disc, mental and nervous pressures, and the continuous pressure of interrogation cause her lumbar disc to become more acute and cervical disc, uncontrollable diabetes and blood pressure."

Read Narges Mohammadi's full statement, in Farsi

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The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance – We Must ACT NOW!

This Emergency Appeal from the International Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now, launched in March 2021 in the U.S., has been endorsed by over 5,000 people from 50 countries, including Germany, the UK and France. Signers include former Iranian political prisoners, relatives of current prisoners, the Burn the Cage/Free the Birds movement in Europe, and prominent voices of conscience including Shirin Ebadi, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Ariel Dorfman, Jody Williams, Daniel Ellsberg, Judith Butler, and Raymond Lotta. It appeared as an ad on the back cover of the Summer 2021 issue of The New York Review of Books as well as in the Summer 2022 issue of Ms. magazine and has been translated into Farsi, Turkish, French, Spanish, and German.

Endorse the Emergency Appeal to Free Iran's Political Prisoners

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Below is a mechanical translation of Narges Mohammadi's tweet, editorial clarifications by IEC volunteers are in brackets.

The officials of the judicial branch harass and deprive the "sick prisoner" to the maximum possible limit, to the point of losing health.‍

Political prisoner and human rights activist, Narges' Mohammadi, in a letter from Evin prison, reported the health condition of dual-national political prisoner [Nahid Taghavi],  as critical. She wrote:‍

"This is the second time I have seen 68-year-old Nahid Taghavi in such a state. She is in so much pain that you can clearly see the pain on his face. She gets out of his bed with difficulty, goes to the hospital and is injected with a strong painkiller and returns to her bed. I am used to seeing Nahid several times a day with a cigarette pack and a cup of coffee in the [prison] yard with an open face full of love, in deep and sharp discussions. She has [endured] this pain throughout 220 days of solitary confinement.

Nahid graduated from the University of Florence in Italy. She was arrested on the street in October 2020, and transferred to solitary cells 2-A of the IRGC [in Evin Prison]. She spent two hundred and twenty days in a small solitary cell, alone, with three blankets (one under her head, one under her body and one on her face).

Lack of light, air, space for movement, poor quality food, deprivation of medical and health care [despite her] history of lumbar disc, mental and nervous pressures, [in addition to] the continuous pressure of interrogation cause her lumbar disc to become more acute and cervical disc, uncontrollable diabetes and blood pressure.

Nahid was deprived of access to a specialist doctor until February 2022. [Meanwhile], her fingers stopped working. Numerous pills from the infirmary inside the prison have made her condition worse day by day and finally in July 2022, she was sent to get cortisone injections into the joints of her body, which is a very painful injection. After months of delay, that is, months of pain and torture, the second treatment finally happened in April 2023.

These days, Nahid is again suffering from dry fingers and severe pain in her neck, back and hands,  despite the forensic medical order [that was] attached to the judiciary's [sentence], that she should not be in an environment full of anxiety and stress.

Both times, after very difficult and painful injections of cortisone into the joints, Nahid was transferred from the hospital bed to the prison bed. How long will this torment continue?"‍

Narges Mohammadi, June 3, 2023