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RFL/RE – Several female Iranian activists are following the lead of women’s rights leader Mojgan Keshavarz by speaking out about degrading and dehumanizing methods — including sexual harassment — being employed by staff at the country’s prisons.
Keshavarz revealed on social media on May 28 that she had been forced to undress completely after being arrested in 2019 and forced to spread her legs and sit and stand at the direction of guards under the pretense of ensuring she had not concealed a mobile phone inside her body. During the ordeal, she said she was photographed.
Keshavarz’s narrative was echoed soon afterward on social media by other women who said they had been subjected to similar acts.
Zeynab Zaman, a civil activist who was recently detained, disclosed that she was forced to completely undress twice — once at the detention center and once at the court — to supposedly ensure she wasn’t smuggling anything.
“The most ridiculous, illogical, and stupid reason for normalizing the suffering of others, is to say that it is the same everywhere! Wherever suffering is imposed on a human being, it’s wrong, it’s inhumane, it’s filthy, it’s a crime,” she wrote of her experience.
Several political and civil prisoners have repeatedly reported inhumane and illegal behavior toward prisoners in Iran and have called for institutions and international organizations to devote attention to the situation in Iranian prisons.
The number of females detained in Iran has grown since the death of Mahsa Amini in September while in police custody for an alleged head scarf offense.
Women have been at the forefront of the unrest that Amini’s death unlocked in Iran, posing one of the biggest challenges to authorities since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Gender equality activist Nasibeh Shamsaei described similar experiences, saying security officials forced her to undress at a time when she was menstruating, describing the tactics as “humiliation” and “psychological torture.”
Prominent Iranian actress Mahnaz Afshar said the tactics are not new.
Afshar said that several years ago, she was summoned to an intelligence office following the release of a video featuring a “naked” girl, falsely identified as her. A female agent at the office forced Afshar to strip completely for photographs to prove it wasn’t her. Afshar described the ordeal as a “violation of my spirit and psyche.”
She added that she fears others will be like her, hiding the experience while feeling “shame” and being gripped by the fear that the pictures of her would be misused.
