Human rights abuses and torture inside Iran’s notorious detention system have been laid bare by a former political prisoner who spent five years in some of the country’s harshest jails, including Evin, Gohardasht and Qarchak Varamin.
Shabnam Madadzadeh, arrested in 2009 for opposing the Iranian regime, described relentless interrogations of up to ten hours a day, psychological torment, solitary confinement and threats of violence during her imprisonment. She witnessed a close friend taken to be executed and suffered alongside fellow inmates in conditions that she says aim to break both body and spirit.
Her account highlights a prison system where sham trials, physical abuse and executions are regularly used to silence dissent and intimidate critics. After her release in 2014, Shabnam fled to France and now advocates for human rights and greater global attention to Iran’s treatment of prisoners.
The article also focuses on the case of British tourists Lindsay and Craig Foreman, who were arrested during a world motorcycle tour in January 2025 and sentenced to ten years in Evin Prison on espionage charges they deny. The UK government condemned the couple’s punishment as unjust and pledged to seek their release.
According to former inmates and rights groups, infamous prisons such as Evin are marked by overcrowding, lack of legal transparency, and routine abuse, particularly against political prisoners and foreigners accused of questionable offenses.