Somayeh Rashidi, a political prisoner held in Qarchak Prison who had been suffering from epilepsy and was denied medical treatment for months, passed away on the morning of Thursday, September 25, 2025, at Mofatteh Hospital in Varamin. About ten days earlier, she had fallen into a coma.
Rashidi, 42, was arrested in May 2025 for writing protest slogans in Tehran’s Javadiyeh neighborhood and charged with “disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” She was initially transferred to Evin Prison but, following the Israeli attack on Evin in July, was moved to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.
Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s Judiciary, claimed that Rashidi was a repeat offender with ties to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and a drug addict who had a history of seizures and psychiatric medication use. The agency further alleged that she had been examined eight times by a general physician and six times by a neurologist during her detention.
However, according to IranWire, citing one of Rashidi’s cellmates, she never used drugs and only suffered from epilepsy. The cellmate said Rashidi’s skin had turned completely yellow two days before she fell into a coma, following repeated epileptic seizures. On September 15, she was constantly vomiting, but each time she was taken to the prison infirmary, she was sent back to her ward in less than 10 minutes. Despite repeated pleas from inmates for her transfer to a hospital, the infirmary refused to transfer her.
Eventually, Rashidi suffered severe seizures during which her jaws locked so tightly that even her fellow inmates could not open them. After prison staff failed to provide a stretcher, inmates placed her unconscious body on a blanket, put her on a wheelchair, and carried her to the infirmary. She was eventually transferred to Mofatteh Hospital in Varamin, where she remained in a coma for 10 days before dying due to a lack of proper medical care in Qarchak Prison.
@iranhrdc
#somayeh_rashidi
Rashidi, 42, was arrested in May 2025 for writing protest slogans in Tehran’s Javadiyeh neighborhood and charged with “disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” She was initially transferred to Evin Prison but, following the Israeli attack on Evin in July, was moved to Qarchak Prison in Varamin.
Mizan News Agency, affiliated with Iran’s Judiciary, claimed that Rashidi was a repeat offender with ties to the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and a drug addict who had a history of seizures and psychiatric medication use. The agency further alleged that she had been examined eight times by a general physician and six times by a neurologist during her detention.
However, according to IranWire, citing one of Rashidi’s cellmates, she never used drugs and only suffered from epilepsy. The cellmate said Rashidi’s skin had turned completely yellow two days before she fell into a coma, following repeated epileptic seizures. On September 15, she was constantly vomiting, but each time she was taken to the prison infirmary, she was sent back to her ward in less than 10 minutes. Despite repeated pleas from inmates for her transfer to a hospital, the infirmary refused to transfer her.
Eventually, Rashidi suffered severe seizures during which her jaws locked so tightly that even her fellow inmates could not open them. After prison staff failed to provide a stretcher, inmates placed her unconscious body on a blanket, put her on a wheelchair, and carried her to the infirmary. She was eventually transferred to Mofatteh Hospital in Varamin, where she remained in a coma for 10 days before dying due to a lack of proper medical care in Qarchak Prison.
@iranhrdc
#somayeh_rashidi