Farzaneh Bijanipour, a prisoner held in the notorious Qarchak Prison in southern Tehran, passed away on Saturday evening due to lack of medical care, a Norway-based human rights organization reported on Sunday.
According to the report by the Iran Human Rights Organization, Bijanipour visited the prison's infirmary in poor condition, but the doctor accused her of feigning illness and, after a subsequent visit, only prescribed a painkiller.
Later on Saturday evening, she became unconscious and passed away after being transferred to the infirmary, the IHR said. Prison authorities transferred her to the hospital once she was already dead.
Widespread violations of the right to healthcare have been reported in Iranian prisons over the past decades, with a number of prisoners losing their lives due to the neglect of prison authorities and deprivation of access to medical services.
Last year, UN human rights experts voiced deep concern over Iran's persistent refusal to grant "timely and adequate healthcare" to human rights defenders and other detainees.
They highlighted a troubling pattern of ill-treatment among Iranian detainees, marked by inadequate access to essential medical care, with a particular emphasis on the plight of human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
“Our deep concerns about the physical and mental integrity of Narges Mohammadi have been communicated to the Iranian Government,” the experts said in a statement released on the UN website in August.
The experts emphasized that “the healthcare of prisoners, as well as the obligation not to expose any prisoner to ill-treatment, is the responsibility of the State,” reminding that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
“Prisoners have the right to equivalent healthcare available in the community and must be given prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases,” the experts underscored.
Amnesty International has underscored the gravity of the situation, asserting that Iranian officials have effectively turned the nation’s prisons into "waiting rooms of death."
According to a 2022 report by Amnesty International, Iranian authorities are perpetrating alarming violations of the right to life by deliberately denying ailing prisoners access to lifesaving healthcare. This "deadly cruelty" involves both blocking or delaying emergency hospitalization and consistently denying adequate medical care throughout imprisonment. As a result, prisoners' health deteriorates, leading to unnecessary pain and suffering and, in some cases, preventable loss of life.
The rights group further highlighted that numerous cases of suspicious deaths in custody, potentially linked to the denial of medical care, have emerged in recent years, underscoring a troubling crisis of impunity for violations of the right to life.
