Crime & Justice
Untreated injuries lead to death of Iranian female political prisoner after release
The Iranian judiciary denied responsibility for Sara Deldar's death. 'They are lying, just like they have about other issues,' a former cellmate said.
![A photgraph of Sara Deldar is displayed on her grave in Rasht, Iran. [File]](/gc3/images/2024/09/18/47631-sara_deldar-370_237.webp)
By Omar |
The death of Sara Deldar, a political prisoner recently released on bail from Lakan prison in Rasht, Gilan province, has renewed concerns about freedom of speech and human rights in Iran.
Deldar, 32, died from untreated injuries and a lack of proper medical care during her time in prison, Iran Human Rights Monitor reported September 9.
She had been shot with pellet guns and sustained injuries to the head, right arm, waist and hip during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, according to IranWire.
Deldar was sentenced to 15 months in prison on charges of "promoting corruption" for sharing images of herself without the compulsory hijab.
She was also charged with "insulting religious sanctities" for posting about the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qassem Soleimani.
She was released on parole after serving more than six months, but her health was already declining.
The exact date of Deldar's death is unclear.
In her last Instagram post July 21 she reported the worsening of her condition since her release from prison, including extreme physical weakness, severe anaemia, and kidney and ovary complications.
Repressive regime
Iran's judiciary, through its Mizan news agency, denied Deldar had injuries and that her death was linked to her time in prison.
"They [the regime] are lying, just like they have about other issues," Deldar's former cellmate told IranWire.
Deldar's death follows a pattern of political prisoners suffering fatal health declines while in detention in Iran, with authorities repeatedly denying responsibility.
At least 32 inmates died in Iranian prisons in 2023, according to a human rights group. Nine of them were political prisoners.
The reported deaths were caused by torture, delayed medical treatment or denial of healthcare, fighting between inmates, suicides and suspected poisonings.
"The Islamic Republic has no regard for human values and social freedoms," said Hanieh, 27, a resident of Mashhad.
"Our people went to the streets to demand their rights, but the repressive forces shot and killed men, women and children," she told Pishtaz. "This is a nearly 50-year battle of the Islamic Republic against the Iranian people."
The IRGC, as the "beating heart of the regime's repressive force," plays an active role in the massacre of the Iranian people and the suppression of human rights, women's rights and freedom of expression, Hanieh said.
"Brave and heroic Iranian women who demand their rights are harshly repressed and imprisoned," said Hadis, 24, a college student in Mashhad.
"There is no regime in the world that tortures, executes and imprisons women the way the Iranian government does."
"Despite the repression, the uprising of Iranian women and girls against this misogynistic and tyrannical regime will never stop," she added.
You have lied for so long that no one will believe your bullshit anymore.
Again, as usual, false witnesses and undocumented words. An international news agency lacking the least media knowledge. A few thousand women and children in Palestine are not people[?] Why don't you broadcast news about them? These things make people not think well of you. For you, people are not the same. It is deemed important [news] if the skin color of their eyes is like Ukraine, but if it is like Muslims such as the people of Palestine and Lebanon, it is not important.
We all love happiness.
We hope everyone is happy and lucky.
Someone who wants to auction off her whole body, which all women do for their husbands in a private room, and do it in public for everyone and then call it women's freedom; will she see that Western countries allow her to do all these things that she wants to do this with zeal in an Islamic country with Muslims? Why are they fooling themselves? If you want to get naked, then go get married, get naked in front of your husband and do whatever you like with your husband, get dressed when you are satisfied, come out and hang out with your husband. Why do you do such things that are illegal, unconventional and irreligious, and mess with the judicial system, and then those who want to enforce the law will become anti-human and anti-human people. Your mistake is that they want to make you a human and make you understand that you should be a human being and not walk in the streets like naked animals, and roar and talk nonsense. Your cellmates and your like-minded fellows who talk that nonsense are just like you and should be disciplined as well.
Hello. Thank you for clarifying the facts for people, wonderful job, indeed.
My dear Majid, check your spelling for “really” and “unique.”
Hello, why do you want our beautiful and lovely Iran for which thousands of our martyrs have given their lives.
Let's keep their heads high, long live Iran; As long as there is blood in our veins, our lives are devoted to the leader.
hello
Does common sense accept that protesting for salary, smashing windows, shouting death to, killing police officers and ordinary people in that horrible manner is to stand up and ask for rights???!!! Are these all excuses? Is it worth the company of the members of an evil foreign government like Britain, which itself destroyed nine million innocent Iranian people in the great famine; is this a reasonable defense of women's rights? Do not believe the nonsense they are saying!!
Salam Alaikum, why are you talking so much nonsense, it is not good, tell the truth. This lady has violated the system's laws. Go to America, make a mistake, and then see what they do; so appreciate the system and the martyrs.
It's all nonsense.
Iranian women have an active presence in society and work in various fields, so this content is untrue.
This is all nonsense.
How long do you want to continue these lies? I love my country Iran and I don't believe these lies.
Islamic Iran is a rainbow of ethnic groups with Turks, Kurds, Lurs, the Baluch, Persians, Gilaks, Turkmens, Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, Shiites, and Sunnis living together peacefully.
Human rights are the excuse of the enemies of Iran and Iranians.
God damn American inhumane rights!
It is clear that you do not have the knowledge and vision towards the western civilized world that you are talking about. I am neither an IRGC nor happy of what they do, but I am Iranian and one of the civilized Aryan race, and I will not sell my country and my compatriots to the 300-year-old civilization of cowboys. Correct yourself and don’t talk big.
I am not very interested in politics - besides, as it’s said, when there is smoke, there is fire.
I am going to tell you that this cave produces one of the precious stones that was sent to the Iranian market along with the long-term use of drugs at this time.
Every day, hundreds of women and children are massacred in Palestine, Lebanon, etc.
However, they are fixated on a few people who are deceived and do not follow the laws of the country and the Islamic society.
In America and European countries, they do not allow the opposition to breathe; even let alone chaos and disrupting the peace of the country.
How many Muslim women and children have been killed in recent years in Islamic countries just due to the extravagance of America, Israel and the West?
As a matter of fact, these are the arms of Satan among mankind.
When the situation of Chinese Muslims is important to you, come and talk.
You’re dumb, not saying a word.
Everyone likes to behave how they want or to choose their own religion.
They were nothing more than a bunch of miscreants; they messed up people's lives. In no other country did they make so many riots and set fire to the treasury - they destroyed the people in the name of freedom and now they are playing the victim role.
A Muslim that has no honour, a woman who sells out her beauties that should be for her husband to others is better to die. Not only is this not good, but it hurts religion and the husband and his honour.