Soghra Khodadadi, the new warden of Qarchak Prison, has threatened to attack political prisoners in this prison, again.
On Sunday, December 13, the anti-riot guards in Qarchak Prison accompanying Soghra Khodadadi raided political prisoners in Ward 8 of Qarchak Prison. They beat them up with stun guns and batons and abandoned them in the ward without any medical care.
The prisoners all had bruises, and some had pain in the chest because of the guards’ beatings.
During the guards’ raid on Ward 8, the prisoners in other wards banged on the walls and chanted “death to the dictator.”
Now, in response to the political prisoners’ protest against the attack last week, the warden of Qarchak Prison, Soghra Khodadadi has threatened to attack them again.
Soghra Khodadadi and his staff in Qarchak Prison want to force prisoners into silence and compel them to abide with their illegal undertakings. But the women political prisoners in Qarchak have not succumbed to these circumstances and have put up a staunch resistance.
Some prisoners are on telephone strike to protest frequent disconnection of the telephones as well as the authorities’ reduction of the duration of their calls. They say they will not call their families until the conditions are back to normal.
Since Soghra Khodadadi has become the warden of Qarchak, she has increased pressure on political prisoners. She has ordered the head to toe chadors for all prisoners to force them into wearing the chador in this all-women prison.
On her orders, prison authorities took the body of one of the war dead and paraded it around the prison on December 18. They also posted pictures of the war dead on the walls of the main corridor. They also held a ceremony in which the prison staff took part.
Qarchak Prison is notorious for its horrid reports of addiction, sexual assaults, and the brutal beating of inmates, which holds approximately 2,000 women and some children. There have been reports of suicides in the prison, as the only option for the women to rid themselves of the horrific conditions.
