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Detainees in Iran’s prisons are being subjected to beatings, rape and psychological abuse, according to testimonies that lay bare the lengths the Islamic Republic will go to crush dissent.
Despite the regime’s long-standing reputation for brutality, accounts of sexual violence and intimidation reveal a particularly disturbing pattern of abuse.
In a harrowing account to The Australian, a woman identified as Mina, a pseudonym, described her experience inside one of Iran’s notorious prisons.
‘They repeatedly struck my head with a Koran so hard that my nose began to bleed. The interrogator also touched my body under my clothes while using disgusting sexual language, and repeatedly asked which newspaper editors I had slept with.’
She added: ‘He told me, "I will bring your 12-year-old son here and make him rape you. Then you will confess on television".’
Such accounts are not isolated, with a report by Amnesty International last month finding that thousands of Iranians are at risk of sexual violence, with children as young as 14 among those assaulted by IRGC-linked forces during the January protests.
Evidence suggests this pattern stretches back decades.
Researcher and former political prisoner Iraj Mesdaghi has documented abuses from the 1980s, including testimony from a 14-year-old boy tortured by Mohammad Mehrayin, known as the ‘Butcher of Evin’.
CCTV footage shows a guard beating a prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran
Iranian female inmates sit at their cell in the infamous Evin jail in Tehran
Despite the regime’s long-standing reputation for brutality, accounts of sexual violence and intimidation reveal a particularly disturbing pattern of abuse.
In a harrowing account to The Australian, a woman identified as Mina, a pseudonym, described her experience inside one of Iran’s notorious prisons.
‘They repeatedly struck my head with a Koran so hard that my nose began to bleed. The interrogator also touched my body under my clothes while using disgusting sexual language, and repeatedly asked which newspaper editors I had slept with.’
She added: ‘He told me, "I will bring your 12-year-old son here and make him rape you. Then you will confess on television".’
Such accounts are not isolated, with a report by Amnesty International last month finding that thousands of Iranians are at risk of sexual violence, with children as young as 14 among those assaulted by IRGC-linked forces during the January protests.
Evidence suggests this pattern stretches back decades.
Researcher and former political prisoner Iraj Mesdaghi has documented abuses from the 1980s, including testimony from a 14-year-old boy tortured by Mohammad Mehrayin, known as the ‘Butcher of Evin’.
CCTV footage shows a guard beating a prisoner, at Evin prison in Tehran
Iranian female inmates sit at their cell in the infamous Evin jail in Tehran
