WOMEN PRISONERS PUT REGIME’S JUDGES & PROSECUTORS ON TRIAL INSIDE EVIN PRISON
“Imagine the moment when justice arrives, a day when you will have to answer for the crimes you committed”
On December 27, 2023, defiant women political prisoners crowded a prison corridor of Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. As a group of 250 high ranking judicial officials visited the prison, the women boldly turned the tables and called out these cowardly criminals. They yelled out the names of Women-Life-Freedom uprising protesters who had been sentenced to death, and those who were executed. They shouted at the very fascist mullahs who ordered the executions! They bravely chanted, sang revolutionary songs, and denounced the regime’s official murderers to their faces. Meanwhile, these powerful and smug judicial “authorities” cowered behind locked doors surrounded by guards. Then they fled the women’s ward in haste.
Below is an inspiring account of this “tribunal”, excerpted from joint Instagram posts by political prisoner and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and Free.Nahid[1]. It highlights the crucial role being played by political prisoners in Iran, especially the women prisoners, and inspires as well as challenges the global grassroots movement to free them with urgency.
On December 27, 2023, defiant women political prisoners crowded a prison corridor of Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. As a group of 250 high ranking judicial officials visited the prison, the women boldly turned the tables and called out these cowardly criminals. They yelled out the names of Women-Life-Freedom uprising protesters who had been sentenced to death, and those who were executed. They shouted at the very fascist mullahs who ordered the executions! They bravely chanted, sang revolutionary songs, and denounced the regime’s official murderers to their faces. Meanwhile, these powerful and smug judicial “authorities” cowered behind locked doors surrounded by guards. Then they fled the women’s ward in haste.
Below is an inspiring account of this “tribunal”, excerpted from joint Instagram posts by political prisoner and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and Free.Nahid[1]. It highlights the crucial role being played by political prisoners in Iran, especially the women prisoners, and inspires as well as challenges the global grassroots movement to free them with urgency.
The judges of the Revolutionary Court and judicial authorities came to Evin Prison, but they faced a trial organized by the female prisoners and fled the prison.
Some of the female prisoners came to the corridor of the staff room to protest against the suppression of the people, prisons, detention, torture, and executions. As soon as chanting began and anthems were sung, the doors to the rooms where the judges were got locked from inside by the guards.… As soon as nine women entered the corridor, the entrance door between the sections and the staff corridor was locked, and the other women had to stay behind the closed doors.
The prisoners on both sides of the door were shouting “Death to the dictator,” “Death to the Islamic Republic,” “Women, life, freedom,” and sang “Khoon Arghavanha” “Bella Ciao” and “Mahsa’s Night” without stopping.
The prisoners in front of the doors declared, “Our presence here is not to pursue our own cases but to protest against the repressive policies of the judicial authority…”. The voice of protesters grew louder in all corners of the building. “Stop issuing death sentences. Halt the death machine, executions, and torture. Do not execute Reza Rasaei and Mojahed Kourkour[2] . Executions are government murders and must be stopped.”…
We, the woman prisoners, stood in front of the door without flinching. Security forces and prison guards pulled us back and forth. We fell to the ground a couple of times but we rose again and stood firm. We interlocked our hands like a chain and chanted & sang. There was a moment in the corridor where there was nothing but the echoing of women shouting “Mohsen Shekari”, Mohsen Shekari”, “Mohsen Shekari.”[3] The image of [Judge] Amouzad, gradually lowering his head beneath the iron bars of the window, became a memorable scene as if he was attempting to hide….
Sepideh [Gholian] lifts her head above the iron bars of the window and addresses Amouzad, demanding, “Why did you kill Mohsen Shekari? Why did you kill Mohammad Mehdi Karami?”....The number of guards and security forces increased moment by moment. Prison officials asked the prisoners to leave, but the prisoners insisted, saying, “We won’t go, and we demand accountability for their crimes.”
Security forces insisted that you can only request information about your own cases, and the prisoners insisted that we are here to declare that the judicial authority must stop the death machine. The demand was clear and the method was resistance and standing against oppression, on the streets and in prison…
Then, female prisoners, with the increasing force of the guards, found themselves in a narrow [passage] and were pushed back by security forces and prison officers. They fell to the ground… and at that moment, the high-ranking judicial authorities and judges left the women’s ward while women were shouting: “Shame, shame!”, “Murderer, go away!” and “Women, life, freedom” and the doors were slammed behind them and locked….
[Narges recalls telling the judges:] “... Today marks a trial; right now, the public is convening a trial for you at the core of Evin Prison, within the women’s political ward. It signifies a quest for justice: Remember this day.”
Long live resistance and hope.
Narges Mohammadi, December 27, 2023, Evin Prison
[1] “Imagine the moment when justice arrives” and “Trial of the Oppressors”, December 27, 2023.
[2] Reza Rasaei and Mojahed Kourkour are Woman, Life, Freedom protesters who are in imminent danger of execution.
[3] The execution of Mohsen Shekari,“Woman, Life, Freedom” protester, was ordered by Judge Amouzad, who was hiding amid security forces behind the locked door.