“It was around 5 in the morning. I had severe period pain and since they had detained me in front of my house, I didn’t have any money to buy sanitary pads. I called out “Sir” in a low voice to open the door. He opened the door and I told him I didn’t have money for sanitary pads and I think I am bleeding on my clothes. He took me to the inspection room to check if I was really bleeding. After checking, he concluded that I had only bled on my underwear and it was not a problem. So he gave me one pad and took me back to my room.”

***

The above narrative is about a woman who spent two nights in Shapur Detention Center on charges of security and moral offenses. In the glossary, detention center refers to a place where individuals are held for a limited and relatively short period of time, and it is the location where suspects are referred with a written order from judicial authorities until a final decision is made. If we were to compare detention centers with prisons, it can be said that prisons are places where convicts with a final sentence are held for the purpose of professional training, rehabilitation, and reintegration.

There are multiple detention centers in Tehran, including the largest one, Agahi Shapour, located in the lowest point of the city. Some refer to it as the “Black Hole of Prisoners”.

At Shapur detention center, often non-security crimes such as theft, buying and selling drugs, or suspects suspected of participating in murder or intentional homicide are held, and in very rare cases, some security suspects have also been transferred to this detention center.

The individual who is the narrator in this report, says that only two security suspects have been seen in this detention center. According to this person’s statements, in the women’s section of the detention center, there are four rooms of approximately 10 square meters each, which lead to a rectangular corridor. This corridor, which appears to be about 70 meters long, is where the detainees eat their meals. The corridor where the detainees eat is also the place where individuals are forced to walk barefoot and barefoot, and some have mistakenly brought toilet slippers into it.

In the detention center, there is no news of the blessing of a phone for those whose communication with the outside world has been cut off, and those who intend to buy from the store can only purchase items such as biscuits, cigarettes, and chocolate milk or items that are available on the shopping list. However, the purchase of cigarettes is limited and they are only allowed to smoke in the toilet when the authorities deem it appropriate for the detainees, and they must return the butt of their cigarette to the authorities.

“Janab”, is the same as the officer/officers of the detention center who prefer to be addressed in this way by prisoners because they believe it will result in a more kind behavior from them.

Goddess.

I am.

From.

Shapur.

Child.‌

Hi.

Ra.

Did you see?

The person who is narrating the situation of Shapur detention center says that when they were held there, an Afghan girl named Elaheh was being kept there on the charge of murdering her husband. “Elaheh was living in the last rooms, which were solitary. No one was allowed to pass in front of the solitary rooms or talk to those who were inside. If the authorities saw someone from the camera, they would immediately open the door and start shouting. They even gave food to the prisoners inside the solitary rooms through the bars.”

He continues the story, “One night after dinner, when they had opened the doors to the individual rooms for pre-sleep bathroom use, I saw Elaheh sitting on the ground, crying loudly and saying, ‘I’m tired.’ With fear, I sat next to her and she opened up her heart to me. She spoke of the beatings from her husband – who they said had killed her – but her tears and cries were for her children, who she had found out had been sent to Kabul. She kept hitting her feet and saying, ‘How will I find my children now?’ I thought to myself, what a great blessing a telephone is for those of us whose connection to the outside world is cut off. Perhaps if Elaheh was in prison, she could pick up the phone and say hello to her children or prevent them from being transferred to Kabul.”

This person describes their situation as follows: “On the last night that I was Shapur, Elahe had come out of seclusion. I realized she had made a vow to wash all the dinner dishes for her children. I couldn’t eat, but that night we washed the dinner dishes together, hoping that what she had vowed for her children would come true.”

Place.

Empty.

Health.

The person who narrates the horrifying situation of Shapur Detention Center says, “It was around 5 in the morning. I was experiencing severe menstrual pain and since they had arrested me in front of my house, I didn’t have any money to buy sanitary pads. I called out for ‘Jenab’ in a low voice to open the door. He opened the door and I told him I didn’t have money for sanitary pads and I think I am bleeding through my clothes. Jenab took me to the inspection room to check if I was really bleeding. After the inspection, he concluded that I had only bled through my underwear and it was not a problem. So he gave me one sanitary pad and took me back to my room.”

He says that wearing prison clothes is mandatory for all prisoners. The blue clothes that everyone can smell and are only washed with empty water: “On the second night in detention, I realized that my left arm had developed a skin sensitivity. I guessed it was due to the dirtiness of the clothes. When I showed it to the officer, he said to show it to the nurse at night. I showed it, but the nurse was busy treating the intoxicated detainees related to drug crimes and said we don’t follow hygiene rules. His words were funny to me because I had this question in my mind, how can hygiene be maintained in a detention center where two people are forced to wash themselves with one soap or use a shared towel?”

This person, who has also spent one night in another detention center, says that there is only a toilet in the detention center and there is no shower.

To.
I’m sorry, there is no Farsi text provided for translation. Please provide the text and I will be happy to translate it for you.

View.

You.

Hour.

Few.

Is it?

According to the narrators, none of the officers in Shapur’s awareness announce the time of detentions in any shift: “I never thought I would be so thirsty to know the time. Whenever it was time for breakfast, we knew it must be around six in the morning, when it was time to open the rooms and have breakfast. Whenever the call to prayer was made and lunch was served, it seemed to us that it was around 12 or 13 o’clock. No one would tell us the time.”

He added, “One day, I heard from one of the detainees that Israel had attacked the city of Isfahan with a drone. When we asked Mr. [name] if it was true or not, he just gave us a smirk and said, ‘Don’t worry, no one can make a mistake even an hour later.'”

From this person’s perspective, the hardest day in detention is the weekend: “On Friday, even the heart of the gentleman was burned for us and he opened the 20-meter-high window that showed a square of the sky for us. Friday is the hardest day because no one is sent out for court to look at the clock before entering the detention center and remember its passage so as not to get lost in the chaos.”

In addition, he refers to the lack of space and the punishment of detainees despite the unfavorable conditions for them: “When they transferred me to Shapur, I could hear screaming and shouting from behind the door, and the officer who was delivering me didn’t even have the courage to step inside. He handed me over from behind the door and just said I should never say I am a security threat and try to escape! When I entered the detention center and the officers realized I was a security threat, they humiliated me severely. After the physical examination, when I was given prison clothes and taken to a cell, I realized that they had taken away the mats for the detainees as punishment and they had been lying on the cold floor for hours.”

He adds, “On the second night when the shift changed, the new officers came to the conclusion that I should be in a different room away from the pregnant heroin addicts. So it happened that we found ourselves in a 15 square meter room with 12 people and we were forced to sleep under each other’s feet. When I protested against the overcrowding and wanted to go back to my previous room, they asked me if I liked the heroin addicts. They didn’t know that even a sick addict is a part of my creation and all other citizens for the community that we are all a part of.”

***

Alongside the account of a woman who spent two nights in Shapur Detention Center, there have been reports of protesters who were transferred to this detention center after their arrest. According to these reports, “torture” and “technical interrogation” have become synonymous with this detention center, with the names of those who have lost their lives under torture creating a horrifying image of this place: Mohammad Raji, a homeless man from Gonabad, was killed just one week after his arrest in this detention center. Mehrdad Talashi, a Kurdish citizen from Divandareh, was murdered as a result of torture by Shapur Tehran’s agents. Milad Jafari, a 25-year-old Kurdish youth, lost his life in a suspicious manner in the Shapur Intelligence Detention Center after being arrested by security forces.