Exclusive: An Interview With one of the Released Women From the Evin Prison

I talked to one of the released women yesterday. She is blogger and also journalist, like many of the arrested women. She described the situation in the detenion for me: “After our arrest on Sunday, we had to wait for eight hours in the Vozara Complex. All this time we were held in a basement. Afterwards, they transported us to Block 209 of Evin Prison in two vans. Up until we reached the Block 209, we could see [where they were taking us]; but just before delivering us to Block 29, they put blindfolds on us. We were 33. They put us into a line and walked us to the cells. We sat against a wall in a hallway with blindfolds on for an hour. For dinner, they gave us bread, cheese, and tea, while still in blindfolds. We objected to this condition, but in reply, we were cussed. Their favorite cuss word which they used repeatedly was: ‘Anti-revolutionary bastards.’ Up to this point, we were only handled by men. They then delivered us to sisters. One of the women recognized Shadi Sadr, attorney-in-law and journalist. She said: ‘How are you, Mrs. Sadr?’ Shadi Sadr who had the blindfolds on said: ‘I can’t see you.’ She then told Shadi: ‘Remove your blindfold.’ Word of mouth through the group had it that this same security police officer was in front of the Revolutionary Court that morning.”

Regarding the conditions in her prison cell, she said: “We were blindfolded in a big room. Then every 4-5 of us were sent to a separate cell, depending on the size of the cell. I heard one of the cells held 6 people. Our cell had a toilette. But I heard that other cells didn’t have toilettes. It looked like it would be a cell used for solitary confinement, but they were using it for several people. I was in a solitary confinement cell for less than an hour when they called me for my interrogation. Interrogations took between 11:30 p.m. until 3:30 a.m. the next day. They interrogated us one by one.”

“During the interrogation, there was no disrespect, at least not to me. Our interrogators were all men. There were no women in the room, and they said nothing about planning to keep us there. I heard they have informed some of the others that they will be released tomorrow (Wednesday).