Human Rights Watch:

Three women died in Qarchak prison, a Tehran women’s prison notorious for abysmal conditions, between September 16 and 25, 2025, following a lack of medical care, Human Rights Watch said today.

The deaths in custody of Soudabeh Asadi, Jamile Azizi, and 42-year-old political prisoner Somayeh Rashidi highlight Iranian authorities’ violation of prisoners’ right to life by causing or contributing to their deaths through denial of medical care. These cases point to the Iranian authorities’ long-standing policy of denying prisoners’ medical care and are a subset of the brutal treatment that puts Iranian prisoners’ lives at risk.

“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.”

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules) requires that states provide prisoners access to adequate medical care.

Shahr-e Rey prison, known as Qarchak, is notorious for its inhumane conditions including poor hygiene, severe overcrowding, and inadequate access to basic facilities and medical care. Circumstances are so dire that many prisoners have gone on hunger strikes in protest. Qarchak has become a stark symbol of the Iranian government’s continued violation of prisoners’ human rights.

For years, human rights organizations, activists, and UN experts and bodies have raised concerns about the prison’s conditions and authorities’ denial of medical care. In August 2025, Human Rights Watch again raised alarms about the dire situation of women political prisoners, including ailing detainees who had been transferred to Qarchak’s quarantine section after the June 23 Israeli attack on Evin prison. 

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