Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared who has spent 13 years in prison for protesting the execution of her two siblings, was beaten by prison authorities on August 24.
One of Semnan Prison officials attacked her after an argument broke out over her children being forced to wear a hijab.
According to reports, Maryam Akbari Monfared had received a visit from her family. During the visit, Hosseinipour, the Chief of the Prison’s Meeting Hall, attacked her.
An informed source said, when Akbari’s family went to Semnan Prison for regular visits, Kurdi, the Deputy Head of Semnan Prison, disrespectfully rejected visitation for her two daughters.
He refused them the right to visit their mother because they were not wearing a Chador (a cloak worn by women to cover the head and body, only leaving the face free.) Kurdi also intended to return Maryam Akbari to her ward.
When Akbari Monfared, objected to her daughters having to wear the chador and resisted returning to her ward, Hosseinipour grabbed her by the throat, beat her, and tried to strangle her while using profanity.
Eventually, Kurdi, intervened and allowed her to have a visit with her two daughters.
Maryam Akbari Monfared was arrested on December 31, 2009, and was forcibly disappeared for five months.
She was tried on charges of supporting the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in May 2010 on the charges of “acting against national security” and “enmity against God.”
Her conviction was based solely on the fact that she had made phone calls to her relatives, who are members of the PMOI, and had visited them once in Iraq.
In August 2010, her sentence was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. She has been jailed ever since her initial arrest on December 29, 2009, without being granted any leave.
On March 9, 2021, Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was exiled from Evin Prison, where she has served more than 11 years of her 15-year sentence, 110 miles east to the central prison in Semnan, an extremely inaccessible location for her children.
She was transferred after signing an open letter with a number of other cellmates on March 1 condemning the death of political prisoner Behnam Mahjoubi due to lack of medical attention, as well as the transfer of “13 prisoners from the Women’s Ward” in Evin Prison to “scatter political prisoners… in the vain hope of breaking their circle of resistance.”
