Women’s Prison in Iran

It is said that “society can be measured by the way its prisoners are treated”. In my view, women’s crimes and punishments are a clear manifestation of gender and social control mechanisms in most Muslim-majority societies of the Middle East, and particularly of an Islamicized criminal policy in post-revolutionary Iran. In the current paradigm of Islamization, the prison culture symbolizes oppressive authority. It also intensifies mental weaknesses and constantly reminds female prisoners that they are the “weak sex”, and therefore that they need more control and should adjust their lifestyles to Islamicized norms.

From an outsider’s perspective, being a woman-in-prison-in-Iran appears as an existential dilemma: that one lives in the absurd world of an ideological prison system that functions as a punitive mechanism to sustain systematic discrimination and Muslim male power within a rapidly changing society. Although there is considerable evidence which confirms that women experience prison differently than men, few studies have focused on the difference that gender makes in Iranian prisons.  The story of female prisoners in Iran is closely connected to the politics of Islamization, which has led to discriminatory criminalization and thus contributed to the punitive control of gender-based relations. Besides imprisonment for drug offences, for example, one of the most common charges for sending women to prison is “Unislamic Relations” (Ravabet-e Naa-Mshroo). This type of criminalization has produced new labels for offences that can be committed by a woman living in an Islamic state, ranging from violations of Hijab Laws to engaging in illicit sexual relations.

In Iran, this year International Women's Day was marked by the attack, arrest and detention of women's rights defenders in front of Tehran's Revolutionary Court. See BBC TV report here! On Sunday March 4, thirty-three women were arrested following a peaceful demonstration to show solidarity with five women on trial for organizing an anti-discrimination protest in 2006. Although all have now been released, three women (Shadi Sadr, Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh, and Jila Baniyaghoub) were detained in Ward 209 of Evin Prison for about one month. This ward is designated primarily for political prisoners and is in fact run by the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They were detained for drafting a statement that called for a public gathering against discriminatory laws in Iran. They were recently released on bail issued at $200,000. Ironically, on March 8, 2007 the leading non-governmental organization, Iranian Society for Prisoners Rights (SDRP), organized an interdisciplinary seminar on “Woman and Prison” in Tehran. This seminar was held while its secretary, Ms Mortaazy, a famous feminist, was in custody together with the thirty-two other women arrested four days ago.

Ms Nahid Keshavarz, one of the leading women rights activists and journalist, who has been jailed for her women rights' activities by last  month, has published her direct observations during this time. This is a very interesting and detailed report about Evin's Woman Ward. Download women_prison_latest_report_from_evin.doc

The state of research about women in Iranian prisons is very similar to the prevailing research agenda about prisons in western criminology until the 1960s: most issues related to incarcerated women were excluded from major research. The issue has been widely neglected by Iranian criminologists and other social scientists until now. It is also an unpleasant fact that the experiences of female prisoners in Iran appeared in the headlines of national and international media mainly after repressive events, such as the case of the death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, aged 54. In June 2003 Ms Kazemi was arrested by police outside the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran for taking photographs of a vigil by families of prisoners held inside. Ms Kazemi died on 10 July, more than two weeks after her arrest. An Iranian presidential report drafted over several months said that she died in custody from a “severe blow” to the head, which fractured her skull and caused a brain haemorrhage. (For the complete report of the Special Commission to investigate the death of Ms. Zahra Kazemi under the Khatami presidency, Download the Report.

The lack of attention to female prisoners notwithstanding, there is a famous movie, “Zendan-e Zanan” (2002), about women’s prisons in Iran that impressively depicts the experience of imprisonment as a living investigation of the ways in which women “did their time” in prison. This taboo-breaking film is based on Manijeh Hekmat's long fieldwork among women prisoners in Iran. Spanning 18 years in an Iranian women's prison, the film, which was banned for some time, shows how the prisoners’ struggle to accommodate to prison life reflects problems in their real lives “outside bars” in post-revolutionary Iranian society. The film explores women’s prison across three different periods of the Islamic Revolution (1982, 1989 and 1999) and includes staff, family and friends. The movie makes a scathing critique of the conditions of incarcerated women in Iran. Hekmat impressively depicts the lives of Iran's lost generation in the two decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, using the claustrophobic life of women in prison as a metaphor for the entire society.

Following from this introduction, I would like to present a picture – although not a comprehensive one – of women’s prisons in Iran, according to information on the Internet (mostly written in Farsi and based on the official website of Iran’s Prisons Organization):

1. Women’s prisons in Iran are male structured, meaning that the daily organisation of prison life and the structure of staffing are dominated by men

2. In Iran there are 146,979 people in prison, of whom 20,000 are on remand, awaiting trial.  5,327 women were in prison in Iran as of January 2007 – about a 173% increase in 10 years.

3. The average time spent in prison is 18 months. In Iran it is often said by prison officials that in one year 600,000 people pass through prison.

4. According to Iran’s police statistics, 3,719 women and 54,324 men were arrested for different offences in 2004. 

5. At the end of 2006, women in prison comprised 3.8% of the total prison population in Iran. However, according to official statistics, while the crime rate has not increased rapidly since 1979, women represent the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population due to the growing number of women prosecuted and convicted of drug offenses.

6. According to a national survey, the women’s prison’s prevalence rate between 1996-2002 is 5.9%. For men it is 7.33%.

7. Female prisoners have a higher incidence of mental health problems, psychiatric admissions and counselling than male prisoners.

8. Due to Islamic values in promoting family ties, conjugal visits (Molaqat-e Sharei) are strongly maintained by prison officers in Iran. They try to maintain the close relationships of imprisoned women with their men and children. Because of serious limitations on physical space, the duration of these visits is between 5 to 48 hours, and those who participate in Islamic courses (especially those who succeed in memorizing some chapters of the Quran) are given priority for this opportunity. This provides a powerful incentive for prisoners to participate in and successfully benefit from Islamic- ideological rehabilitative programs.

9. There is no women-only prison in Iran. Female prisoners are housed in separate “women’s wards”, and although they theoretically share some or all of the prison programs and services, there are clear discriminations based on ideological-Islamic perceptions about women’s rights and duties. For instance, in comparison with male prisoners in using the daily free-time outdoor yard of the prison, women are mostly deprived of this opportunity because the prison officers believe that men might be sexually seduced by them.

10. In contrast to men’s prisons, where classification systems are seemingly developed, in women’s prisons this is very primitive. 70.9% of female prisoners are in low or open classification. In most women’s prisons there is generally no segregation of prisoners by risk. However, in big prisons like Evin, it is reported that women are segregated into subsections according to three main categories of offences: drugs, illegal sexual relations, and crimes against the person. In addition, married women, and girls-unmarried women are held in separate sections.

11. The most common offences are drug-related offences (55.8%), illegitimate (i.e., anti-Islamic) sexual relations (31.20%), and theft (6.77%).

12. 73% of female prisoners are charged with addiction. According to the Presidency Drug Control Headquarters, there are more than 100,000 addicted women in Iran – about 6.9% of all addicts. Addiction among women is drastically increasing.

13. 37% of women prisoners are recidivists. The rate of return to prison in different provinces is between 15 to 55%. In Mashad, the rate was 80% in recent years (for a brief report on women’s prisons in Mashhad, see here).

14. In 2006 in Khuzestan, more than 554 women entered prison. More than 75% were under 35. Women mostly take literacy classes and receive instruction in carpet weaving.

15. 60% of female offenders have lost their husbands or been divorced.

16. In 2003, 200 children were living in prisons with their mothers. Children under three years of age are allowed to stay with their mothers in jail. There is a kindergarten in Evin Prison as well.

17. Some children have even been born in prison. According to Marzieh Farina, Deputy for Health and Medical Issues in Iran’s Prison Organization, in 2003, 24 women (5 of whom were pregnant in prison) in Khorasan Razavai Prison, 17 women (7 of whom were pregnant in prison) in Sistan and Baluchestan Prison, 11 women in Kerman Prison and 2 women in Yazd Prison gave birth to babies while in prison.

18. 66% of female prisoners are mothers. There are about 1,000 children directly affected.

19. Before entering prison, there is a critical examination of a woman’s womb to search for hidden drugs.

20. The average age of prisoners is 32 for women and 30 for men. Prisoners range in age from 18 – 65 years. 

21. Drug-related offenses inside the prison are widely reported. In fact, there is a culture of drug taking in Iranian prisons, especially in the women’s wards because there is more physical possibility to bring drugs from outside.

22. While there are 26 special youth correction centers for offenders under the age of eighteen in all provinces of Iran, there are just two correction centers (in Tehran and Isfahan) for young female offenders. Hence most female juveniles are held in adult prisons.   

23. Most are from low-income communities, and are illiterate or have low levels of education (below high-school level).

24. It is reported by Evin’s officials that in the women's ward of Evin Prison, just 4 inmates were HIV-positive (mainly because of sharing dirty needles). But it is commonly believed that the actual number of HIV and AIDS cases is much higher than the official record because of the high rate of drug offenders in Iran. In addition, many cases are not revealed due to the long incubation period of the disease. According to official statistics there are more than 10,265 AIDS cases in Iran.

25. According to prison officials, there are about 900 women in different prisons in Tehran. 450 out of 4,500 inmates in Evin Prison are women. It should be mentioned that offenders of crimes against property and security are held in Evin. Drug offenders are held in Ghazelhesar Prison and crimes against persons in Rejaeishahr and Karaj prisons.

26. In Mashhad's prison there are about 600 women, most of whom are married and are between 35-40 years old.

27. Reportedly homosexual sex prevails in Iranian prisons.

Only a few scientific studies about women in prison have been done in Iran. One relatively informative survey was conducted by Hamid Hamidy Froud for Iran’s Prison Organization (IPO), a “Comparative study of women’s offences in Iran during 1994-1996” (Tehran: IPO, 1998). Another study was conducted by the Institute for Criminal Sciences in the Department of Law and Political Science at the University of Tehran, under the supervision of Dr Shahla Moazzamy. This study provides general profiles and characteristics of incarcerated women in Iran but gives no reliable facts. A brief report on this research was published in the Festschrift of Prof. M. Ashouri (SAMT, 2004). A third study was done by Dr Kumars Kalatary in 1995 on the situation of women prisoners in Mazandaran and Gilan.

Finally, below are some general statistics about women’s prisons in Iran in comparison with selected European countries. Note: this is a slightly weird list – a few western European countries and then mostly central-eastern European. Because I thought there might more similarity between previous communist countries of the Europe and ideological system in Iran in terms of criminal policy and also material facilities and welfare.

Country	Total Prison Population	% Female Prisoners	% Foreign Prisoners	%Occupancy Level
Italy	57,046	4.8 (6/04)	31.8 (12/04)	134.2 (9/03)
Germany	77,166	5.3 (8/06)	28.2 (8/06)	96.5 (8/06)
Iran	152,306	3.5 (4/06)	3.30 (4/06)	243.1(4/06)
Eng & Wales	75,540	5.9 (4/05)	12.2 (10/04)	109.9 (4/05)
Bulgaria	11,060	3.2 (2/05)	2.0 (9/02)	126.6 (2/05)
Czech Republic	19,408	4.6 (4/05)	9.3 (3/05)	115.6 (6/04)
Estonia	4,570	5.2 (4/04)	35.8 (10/02)	94.2 (1/04)
Hungary	16,543	5.8 (1/05)	4.2 (1/05)	145.1 (1/05)
Latvia	7,796	5.3 (1/05)	0.8 (1/05)	85.1 (1/05)
Lithuania	8,063	3.0 (1/04)	1.6 (1/04)	84.2 (1/04)
Poland	79,807	2.9 (10/04)	1.5 (10/04)	114.5 (9/04)
Romania	39,015	4.4 (12/03)	0.8 (12/03)	101.1 (1/05)

Sources:

Newsletters of Iran’s Prison Organization available at http://www.prisons.ir/fa/index.php

Iran’s Main News Agencies; IRNA and ISNA

The World Prison Brief available at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/europe_records.php?code=139