On kilometer 17 of the Tehran-Varamin highway, just before reaching the city of Qarchak, there is a facility near the road consisting of seven warehouses and one newly constructed building. These are the characteristics of a prison that officials have named “Shame City of Rey” and the locals of the area refer to it as Qarchak-Varamin Prison. Mohsen Mansouri, the special governor of Varamin county, had previously stated in an interview with the media that this prison falls under the jurisdiction of the special governorate of Rey and has no connection to Varamin county or Qarchak district.

Ardi Paradise, the month of 90 after the closure of the women’s ward in Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj and the transfer of a group of political prisoners from this prison to this location, the name of this prison and its conditions were on everyone’s lips. Eyewitnesses who were transferred from Rajai Shahr to there say, “Compared to this prison, Rajai Shahr is like paradise.”

The transfer of female prisoners from Evin prison to this location caused international media to pay more attention, to the point that a week later, Mohseni Ejei immediately arranged for a television show and visited the prison; local television cameras captured a completely different image from what was reported by independent media.

After that, images of the order and hygiene in the environment and the active helpers in this prison were displayed in government-affiliated media, and with the transfer of Evin prisoners to Qarchak prison and the transfer of political prisoners in Rajai Shahr to Evin prison, this issue was no longer followed by independent media and the Qarchak and Ramin prisoners were forgotten.

Mohammad Rahimi Yousefi is the head of this prison and has a deputy named Mrs. Rahimi. This prison is also managed by the Tehran Province Prisons Organization and according to its head, it is the only women’s prison in the world. The building of this prison was previously under the control of the Welfare Organization for the rehabilitation of drug addicts and then handed over to the judiciary and converted into a prison consisting of seven halls.

Close to two thousand prisoners are held in this prison, and due to the number of beds, approximately 600 prisoners are considered to be “floor sleepers”. These prisoners sleep and eat in places where there are no beds, usually in front of the bathroom doors. Each hall that houses more than 300 prisoners has two bathrooms where they can shower and wash their dishes and clothes. There is no designated area for eating; each prisoner eats, rests, and carries out their daily tasks on their own bed.

The warehouses also lack rooms and there is only one large hall where the remaining beds from the welfare era are placed. Each warehouse has a restroom that can accommodate up to 20 people.

Daily, three meals are distributed and if a prisoner does not move, there is no news of the meal. Beating and insulting are the seasoning of prisoners’ daily meals; some prisoners may even be beaten for receiving more rations or protesting against officials for not receiving their daily share.

The food promises are monotonous; boiled potatoes, macaroni, and bread. The monotony of meals has led to vitamin deficiencies and various diseases. Infectious diseases, hepatitis, and AIDS are also common among prisoners, and officials do not have a separate policy for sick prisoners. Since there are no monthly check-ups or medical tests, there is no accurate statistics on prisoners with AIDS or hepatitis.

Until 9 AM, each prisoner is allowed three minutes of phone call per day and for calls longer than three minutes, they must purchase a time slot; for example, foreign prisoners from Tanzania and the Philippines who work in prison services and have no family or business in Iran, sell their daily phone calls to Iranian prisoners and through this, they can have more than three minutes of contact with the outside world per day.

In this prison, there are nearly 30 death row inmates whose sentences have been confirmed by the judicial system and are awaiting approval from the head of the judiciary. Additionally, 16 death row inmates are waiting for a response from the Supreme Court of the country. The death row inmates are housed alongside inmates serving prison sentences, and the lack of separation between these two groups poses multiple dangers for the inmates serving prison sentences. For example, a few months ago, two death row inmates conspired with each other to delay their executions by killing another inmate. These types of murders in the prison are used as a means to open new cases and delay the execution of sentences.

On the other hand, there is no foreign medical care in this prison and prison officials say they do not have a budget for it. Officials prevent families from bringing in medication under the pretext of controlling the entry of drugs, and the only medication families are allowed to give to prisoners is medication for heart patients.

Around the Qarchak Varamin prison, there are swamps and marshes, making life even more difficult for inmates during the hot season due to the presence of harmful insects; however, officials still do not have a solution. The punishment of prisoners is carried out by male guards, which is only one of the noteworthy issues in the women’s prison, and in case of a riot, without considering moral and human standards, male guards use violence against prisoners.

The question that may still occupy the reader’s mind is: where was the prison that Mohseni Ejei entered and also set up a television station? That place is also the Garchak and Varamin prison, but what is shown to inspectors and reporters is called the “consultation ward” that Tehran Mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has built. This ward has a capacity of about 150 prisoners who can enter it for a fee. Another condition for entering this ward – which is famous among prisoners as the Ghalibaf ward – is having a sentence of less than five years. This place also has clean health services, a library, a welfare office, a nursery, etc., which, of course, many of these facilities are only active during visits.

To get a proper picture of the harsh conditions of this prison, you must imagine yourself as a prisoner sentenced to 15 years of punitive imprisonment, forced to endure these conditions. Life on a dirty bed, long lines for food, limited access to facilities such as toilets or phones. It becomes impossible to imagine such conditions when, like last month, the prison’s water supply was cut off for 20 days, and you most likely experienced menstrual irregularities during this long period without water. And of course, in any case, due to limited facilities, you do not have access to water for personal hygiene. Imagine children living with their mothers in these conditions, without a guardian. The exhausting conditions of a prisoner who does not even have proper heating during the winter, and only has access to three hours of hot water per day, which is often cut off.

The black market for drugs is also prevalent in prison. According to the latest research, the price of one ibuprofen tablet in this prison is two thousand tomans. There is a place called “Behdari” but it is not even active during emergencies. Two months ago, a prisoner died during childbirth in this prison due to the lack of medical personnel. The coexistence of 18-year-old prisoners with those over 50 years old with various crimes is another problem in this prison, and the sexual abuse of young prisoners by criminal inmates is a nightmare for female prisoners.

According to the definition of prisons, a prison is a local place where convicts with final sentences are held by judicial authorities with legal jurisdiction for a specific or permanent period of time for the purpose of punishment, vocational training, rehabilitation, and reintegration. However, there are cases of forgotten individuals in women’s prisons who, due to enduring such conditions, usually do not return to society; they may either lose their lives due to physical abuse by officials or murder by prison gangs, or contract dangerous and contagious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis.

Explanation: In this article, the archive of the human rights activists in Iran has been used.