In solitary confinement in Iran
Detainee Nahid Taghavi is said to have a life-threatening illness
06/04/2023, 8:45 p.m
The human rights activist Nahid Taghavi is doing worse and worse in Iran’s Evin prison, according to a fellow prisoner. The German-Iranian is in severe pain and suffers from diabetes. She still has almost nine years in prison.
According to a fellow prisoner, the German-Iranian human rights activist Nahid Taghavi, who has been imprisoned in Iran, is in a life-threatening condition. “The life of Nahid Taghavi, a political prisoner, is in danger,” wrote activist Marges Mohammadi, also imprisoned in Iran, on Instagram.
The 68-year-old could hardly get out of bed because of the pain. “Then she comes to the hospital, is injected with a strong painkiller and goes back to bed,” wrote Mohammadi, who, like Taghavi, is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison. “The pain is so severe that it marks her face.”
Taghavi has now spent 220 days in solitary confinement in Evin prison. This aggravated an existing disc problem; now she also has pain in her cervical spine and suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, wrote Mohammadi, whose Instagram account is run by her family in France. In this way, the activist can speak up from prison.
Last year, Taghavi was briefly allowed out of prison for medical treatment. However, according to her family, she was arrested again before she could recover.
Activist fought for women’s rights
Taghavi was sentenced in August 2021 to ten years and eight months in prison for “membership of an illegal group” and anti-regime propaganda. The German-Iranian activist had campaigned for human rights and especially women’s rights in Iran for years.
More than a dozen people who hold Western passports are currently being held in Iran. Among them is the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sentenced to death by the Iranian judiciary. Human rights groups denounce the “hostage diplomacy” of the leadership in Tehran, which wants to extort concessions from Western states in this way.