By Pishtaz | 2023-09-22

Five letters written in Iran's prisons have found their way out to the world of free press.

On September 8, French daily Le Monde published the translation of letters that five female political prisoners in Iran had written and managed to sneak out of prison.

Four of the women are inmates of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, and one -- Zeynab Jalalian -- is currently in an unnamed prison in Iran. During her imprisonment, Jalalian has been transferred from prison to prison, city to city, several times.

Among female Iranian political prisoners, Jalalian, a 41-year-old Kurdish minority rights activist, has been incarcerated the longest of all -- 16 years. She has not been on furlough during her entire time in prison despite having a host of health problems.

Jalalian was a member of the Kurdistan Free Life Party or PJAK, a leftist anti-regime party, and was sentenced to death upon arrest. Four years after her detention, a court of appeals reduced her sentence to life in prison.

In her letter, Jalalian said that regime officials have asked her to "repent", and she has refused. "I, who have seen so much cruelty, am the one who should be remorseful?"

"For over 16 years, I have been imprisoned for demanding freedom, justice and equality. My real pain is not being in prison. It is the loss of all of those dear to us who were killed for freedom; those whose voices we will never hear again."

Jalalian has expressed in the letter the pain she has endured due to the physical and mental torture over her years of incarceration.

'Worthwhile struggle'

Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist who has not seen her husband or children for eight years, has been arrested, imprisoned and released multiple times since 2009.

In her letter, Mohammadi writes, "As a woman, like millions of other Iranian women, I have always faced being restricted by a male-dominated culture; religious and tyrannic power; ominous, discriminatory, cruel laws; and restrictions in all aspects of my life."

In another part of the letter, Mohammadi writes, "Dear reader ... the mere fact that this letter is published shows our voices have been strong enough to reach you ... we are stronger than our executioners."

Aside from this letter, Mohammadi has also responded in writing to the questions of an interview recently. In her written responses, she insisted that her struggle is worthwhile, saying the protest movement that erupted a year ago in Iran against the Islamic Republic is still alive.

Sepideh Qolian, 28, is another rights activist, from Dezful in south of Iran, who has been arrested, released and re-arrested several times since 2016. The last time, she was arrested almost immediately after her release as she chanted slogans against Iranian leader Ali Khamenei upon leaving the prison.

After her arrest, her court session was canceled as she refused to cover her hair to appear in court. The Iranian judiciary system has said she will be prosecuted for this very reason as well.

In her letter, which she wrote two months before its publication in Le Monde, Qolian stressed that "Women, Life, Freedom" -- the movement that has risen from last year's widespread protests in Iran -- should not be considered a "passing phenomenon."

She said the movement "was a major experience in mobilizing the public which was formed based on prior struggles, and shows the Iranian people's united desire for the current regime's downfall."

'Keep the environment in mind'

Niloufar Bayani, 37, is another woman whose letter has appeared in Le Monde. In 2020, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, which she has denied.

Bayani is a researcher and environmentalist who dedicated her letter to mentioning the names of the imprisoned Iranian environmentalists.

The Iranian regime is sensitive to environmental activism and equates it to working for Western governments.

Many environment activists have been arrested in recent years, and one -- Kavous Seyed-Emami -- died in prison in 2018 under suspicious circumstances. The judiciary claimed he had taken his own life, which his family and friends have denied.

In her letter, Bayani asks readers to remember Seyed-Emami's plight, and asks anyone whose concern is human rights to keep the environment in mind.

Another woman whose letter from Evin prison was translated and published in the French newspaper is Golrokh Iraee, 34, an activist who was arrested in 2016 along with her husband, Arash Sadeghi, 36, a fellow activist who also remains in prison.

In her letter, Iraee mentions how taboos were broken in the recent uprising, and this has contributed to "weakening religious pro-government powers."

She wrote that the new generation of dissidents is "different" and has confused the regime more than ever.

Accused of "propagation against the regime" and of writing an unpublished story about the Islamic ritual of stoning women (who are accused of adultery), Iraee has been arrested, imprisoned and released multiple times in the past seven years.

She was most recently detained at the beginning of last year's anti-regime protests and sentenced to seven years in prison. In her letter, Iraee writes that the regime has lost its legitimacy in light of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement.