Rahila Rahimipour, political prisoner suffering from brain tumor, denied appropriate medical care

Rahila Rahimipour, a member of the families of those executed in the 1980s, is imprisoned in Evin Prison and has been denied appropriate medical care despite suffering from a brain tumor. According to HRANA, the news agency of human rights activists in Iran, the general condition of this 72-year-old prisoner seeking justice is unsuitable due to 'multiple illnesses,' and she is unable to endure imprisonment. The report states that despite needing specialized medical treatment, Rahimipour remains deprived of transfer to a hospital and medical care. Previously, HRANA reported that the reason for this woman's deprivation of medical care was her refusal to wear a mandatory hijab. Rahimipour is considered a member of the families seeking justice for the missing and executed in the prisons of the Islamic Republic. While her brother Hossein and her husband were arrested and executed in the 1980s, the authorities of the Islamic Republic never returned their newborn, Golroo, to her family, claiming without providing a death certificate or burial location that the child had died. Sedigheh Vosemqi, a critic of the Islamic Republic and former political prisoner, previously described Rahimipour's presence in the women's section of Evin Prison as 'one of the clear signs of the oppression of the judicial system of the Islamic Republic' and wrote that she is 'seeking justice for the blood of her brother who was executed in the 1980s.' According to HRANA, Rahimipour was arrested in November 2019 and sentenced to six years in prison by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court on charges of 'propaganda against the regime.' The report indicates that this member of the families of the executed was transferred to Evin Prison in late November 2023 to serve her sentence. Amnesty International previously issued a statement calling on the Iranian authorities to stop the harassment of Rahila Rahimipour. Additionally, Hamideh Zaraaee, an exiled protester in Rasht, was released on bail from Lakan Prison on Tuesday, June 11. This opponent of the mandatory hijab went on a dry hunger strike starting June 8 in protest of her 'illegal detention and the violence during her arrest.' She declared that she would continue her hunger strike until she was released. Ms. Zaraaee, who has been in Rasht since last year to serve her two-year exile, was summoned by the court after refusing to wear a chador at the police station where she was required to check in weekly. She had to report to the Golzar police station in Rasht every three days. Hamideh Zaraaee was arrested in June 2023 at her home in Karaj and sentenced in November of the same year to one year in prison, two years of exile to Rasht, two years of travel ban, and two years of prohibition from social media. Her prison sentence was reduced to nine months after she submitted to the verdict. She was arrested during the nationwide 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests on November 3, 2022, at the memorial for Hadith Najafi, one of the victims of these protests, and was imprisoned in Kachoui Prison in Karaj. This protester was eventually released following a government pardon in February of the same year. Many civil and political activists in Iran have faced prison sentences, exile, and bans on social media activity due to security charges. Concerns about the health of political prisoners Sedigheh Vosemqi and Rahila Rahimipour; Shiva Mahbubi explains that Narges Mohammadi considers 'the presence of more than 20 female prisoners over 60 years old' in Evin as indicative of 'the will of women' and 'the cruelty of the Islamic Republic.' Rahila Rahimipour, a prisoner suffering from a brain tumor, has been 'deprived of treatment' due to her refusal to accept the mandatory hijab. The dry hunger strike of Hamideh Zaraaee, a political prisoner, continues in Lakan Prison in Rasht.