**Three Women Die in Tehran’s Qarchak Prison Following Denial of Medical Care, Human Rights Watch Reports**
(Beirut) — Three women have died in Qarchak prison, a Tehran women’s detention center notorious for its abysmal conditions, between September 16 and 25, 2025. Human Rights Watch reports that these deaths followed a lack of adequate medical care. The victims—Soudabeh Asadi, Jamile Azizi, and 42-year-old political prisoner Somayeh Rashidi—underscore the Iranian authorities’ violation of prisoners’ right to life by denying or delaying critical medical treatment.
These tragic cases highlight a long-standing policy by Iranian authorities of withholding medical care from prisoners. This practice forms part of a broader pattern of brutal treatment that endangers the lives of detainees.
“Prisons in Iran, especially Qarchak, have become places of torment and death where prisoners’ dignity and basic rights are systematically ignored,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “For decades, the authorities have not only failed to improve conditions but have deliberately used the denial of even the most basic rights, such as access to medical care, as a tool of repression and punishment against prisoners.”
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### Dire Conditions at Qarchak Prison
Shahr-e Rey prison, commonly known as Qarchak, is infamous for its inhumane conditions, including poor hygiene, severe overcrowding, and inadequate access to basic facilities and medical care. The situation is so dire that many prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes in protest.
Qarchak has become a stark symbol of the Iranian government’s ongoing violations of prisoners’ human rights. For years, human rights organizations, activists, and UN experts have raised alarms over the prison’s conditions and the authorities’ systematic denial of medical care.
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### Political Prisoner Somayeh Rashidi’s Death
In August 2025, Human Rights Watch again alarmed the public about the worsening situation of women political prisoners, many of whom were transferred to Qarchak’s quarantine section following the June 23 Israeli attack on Evin prison.
Among those transferred in June was Somayeh Rashidi, arrested in April 2025 for writing protest slogans in Tehran, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), a US-based human rights organization.
Rashidi died in a hospital on September 25, ten days after being taken to Mofatteh Hospital in Varamin following a seizure in prison, HRANA reported. The judiciary’s official news agency, Mizan, confirmed the death of a prisoner identified as “S. R.” on the same day.
According to an informed source, doctors identified Rashidi’s delayed hospitalization as the primary cause of her irreversible health decline.
While imprisoned, Rashidi was sometimes unable to walk or care for herself due to her deteriorating health. Despite awareness from judicial and prison authorities as well as medical staff, Rashidi was denied timely and adequate medical care. Instead, she was administered sedatives and psychiatric medications that worsened her symptoms, HRANA stated.
Prison administrators even accused her of faking illness when she became too sick to move, requiring other prisoners to carry her to the clinic on September 15, sources told Human Rights Watch.
In the days following Rashidi’s death, the judiciary claimed she had a history of drug use and neurological disorders and insisted she received appropriate treatment while incarcerated—claims consistent with a long-standing pattern of denial and evasion by Iranian authorities.
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### Deaths of Soudabeh Asadi and Jamile Azizi
Rashidi’s death followed that of two other women detained in Qarchak prison.
Soudabeh Asadi, held on financial charges, died on September 16 after authorities denied her medical care and delayed her transfer to a hospital, HRANA reported.
On September 19, Jamile Azizi, detained on charges unknown to Human Rights Watch, was taken to the prison clinic with symptoms of a heart attack. After examination, doctors reportedly told her she was fine and sent her back to the prison ward, where she died shortly afterward, according to HRANA sources.
A former female human rights defender previously held in Qarchak told Human Rights Watch that clinic officials routinely sent prisoners back without running necessary tests, even when patients like Azizi complained of severe chest pain. Transfers to external hospitals were often intentionally delayed despite worsening conditions.
“They [authorities] expose us all [prisoners] to death,” she said.
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### A Pattern of Denial and Repression
The deaths of these three women are the latest documented consequences of the authorities’ persistent refusal to provide prisoners with necessary healthcare, sometimes used as a means to punish and silence dissent.
Amnesty International’s April 2022 report detailed circumstances surrounding dozens of deaths in custody since 2010, caused by denial of medical care across 30 prisons nationwide. The true number of such cases is likely higher, as many go unreported due to fears of reprisals against families and advocates.
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### The Situation of Women Political Prisoners
On October 9, authorities transferred women political prisoners from Qarchak to Ward Six of Evin prison. Activists and human rights organizations report that these detainees continue to endure poor conditions without access to basic necessities.
The transfer has raised concerns because the June 23 Israeli airstrikes extensively damaged vital facilities at Evin, including its clinic and visitation hall, exacerbating the lack of access to medical care.
Sources told Human Rights Watch that Maryam Akbari Monfared, 48, who requires urgent spinal surgery, has yet to receive specialized treatment. Despite the transfer of women political prisoners to Evin, Akbari Monfared remains held in Qarchak, apparently as punishment. She has been imprisoned for 15 years on vague charges of “enmity against God” (moharebeh) without a single day of leave.
Similarly, Kurdish activist Warisha Moradi, on death row in Evin prison, urgently requires medical care for several conditions, according to sources.
Scores of other ailing prisoners—including political prisoners such as Kurdish activist Zeynab Jalalian—are deprived of medical care across Iranian prisons.
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### Calls for Accountability and Reform
Under international law, states are obligated to conduct independent, impartial, transparent, and thorough investigations into potentially unlawful deaths in custody. However, Iran’s authorities have systematically failed to carry out such investigations, often denying responsibility or attributing deaths to suicide or substance abuse shortly after they occur.
Human Rights Watch calls on Iranian authorities to immediately provide timely and adequate medical care to all prisoners, including specialized treatment outside prison facilities.
“The international community should apply unwavering pressure on Iran’s authorities so they address the dire conditions prisoners endure throughout the country, including in Qarchak, and ensure proper medical care for all detainees,” Michael Page said.
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*For further information, contact Human Rights Watch or visit their official website.*
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/20/iran-three-prisoners-dead-after-denied-medical-care