Iran continues to hold the Kurdish female activist Somayeh Kargar in detention, four months after arresting her without a charge in Tehran on 16 October.
The security forces had arrested Somayeh Kargar, a social activist and a philosophy graduate from Ilam, and continue to keep her in the detention centre of the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Evin Prison of Tehran.
A relative of the social activist spoke to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) about her latest condition and said, “Ms. Kargar is still being held in a two-person cell in the ward 2-a of the IRGC’s intelligence organisation. During this four-month period, she has lost a lot of weight, has been suffering from stomach ache, and is not in a good physical condition.”
According to the source, Kargar suffers from a rare disease that has severely reduced her vision and has been treated periodically by ophthalmologists in France for several years. She was scheduled to travel to France in November 2020 for further treatment, but was unable to do so due to her detention.
The source also said Somayeh Kargar was denied access to her complementary medicines, adding, “Evin prison authorities are refusing to deliver her complementary medicines and this has worsened her condition.”
According to the information received by the KHRN, last week, after the parents of the social activist went from Ilam to visit her in the Evin Prison in Tehran, the officials of the detention centre of the IRGC agreed to a brief face-to-face meeting. But during this brief meeting that took place with the presence of interrogators, officers asked Kargar’s mother to refrain from speaking in Kurdish with her. Forced to speak in Persian, her mother told the security interrogator, “I cannot express my feelings for my child in a language other than Kurdish.”
Somayeh Kargar, a Kurdish social activist from Ilam and a graduate of philosophy at the University of Tabriz, was arrested on 16 October at her home in Tehran. Security agents also searched her house and confiscated her personal belongings, including her computer and cell phone.
A few days after the follow-ups by her family, the Evin Prosecutor’s Office had informed them that Kargar was being accused of “internet-related crimes”.
Somayeh Kargar suffers from severe visual impairment due to a rare eye disease, such that she needs help to carry out her daily activities.