A group of 16 female political prisoners have issued a statement to decry the crowded prison wards and the dire health conditions in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. 

In their letter released to media on Monday, the prisoners said that considering the spread of the new covid-19 variant in the prison and lack of enough room for quarantine areas, the inmates are in danger. 

They denounced a lack of proper attention to their health conditions, noting this is not the first time that health conditions for the prisoners have been ignored in the women's ward at Evin and other prisons, including Qarchak prison near the capital. “What has worsened the situation these days is the daily increase in the number of female prisoners while the Covid-19 is spreading."

Rights defender Narges Mohammadi, one of the signatories of the letter, said earlier in the month that authorities put the lives of female prisoners in danger by refusing to protect them from Covid despite new cases. Mohammadi, who has been transferred to the Women’s Ward of Evin Prison after a recent open-heart surgery, said that some of the inmates have tested positive for Covid while several others have developed symptoms but have not been tested.

Ill-treatment of political prisoners and activists at Evin and other prisons such as Qarchak is not limited to denying them necessary healthcare. Sepideh Rashno, an anti-hijab protester who is reportedly held at a ward run by the IRGC at Evin, had to be taken to hospital to check for internal bleeding symptoms resulting from torture before her ‘forced confession’ was aired on state-run television last week.