Female guards at a prison near Tehran have sexually assaulted the wife of a political prisoner under the guise of a "search" as state-sanctioned abuse in Iranian prisons continues, Iran International has learned.
Consistent with hundreds of similar reports from Iran's Me Too movement, the woman was stripped completely, subjected to verbal abuse and humiliation, before the sexual assault at Ghezelhesar Prison, near Tehran.
The severity of the assault was such that the woman suffered severe bleeding in addition to the psychological trauma, a source from the association of prisoner families at the prison claiming the practice is a daily occurrence.
From April to December last year, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released reports detailing "sexual assault" by agents of the IRGC, Basij, Ministry of Intelligence, and various police departments against women, men, and children during the protests following Mahsa Amini's death in police custody in 2022.
In May last year, several female civil and political activists shared their experiences during detention or imprisonment, describing how Islamic Republic forces forced them to strip completely naked in front of guards or on camera, allegedly to ensure they had not concealed anything.
The Iranian judiciary's news agency Mizan confirmed the occurrence of such strip searches yet claimed that "no images were recorded or taken" though it is widely reported by Me Too that such searches are conducted under the video surveillance of male guards.
