Open Civil Society Letter Calling for Life-Saving Medical Treatment for Iran’s Longest Serving Female Political Prisoner

We, the undersigned, as activists, advocates, former political prisoners and human rights organisations, express grave concern for the life and wellbeing of Zeinab Jalalian, a Kurdish women’s rights activist and political prisoner who has spent over 17 years –most of her adult life – in prison. Zeinab is the longestserving female political prisoner in Iran and only female political prisoner in the country sentenced to life imprisonment.

Despite credible concerns that Zeinab suffers from a life-threatening illness, Iranian authorities have repeatedly denied her access to adequate medical care. Zeinab is believed to suffer from kidney and gastrointestinal issues, pterygium, foot-and-mouth disease, impaired vision, and dental infections. Furthermore, since June 2024, she has reportedly been experiencing excruciating pain in her abdomen and is suffering from at least ten uterine myomas, causing her severe bleeding. One of the few doctors she has been allowed to see reportedly alerted that she could have cancer in her uterus and might need surgery, but she has not been able to undergo any further medical examination to produce an accurate diagnosis.

Zeinab must be properly examined, diagnosed, and provided with adequate treatment to prevent irreparable harm to her health and personal integrity.

Multiple UN bodies and experts have condemned Zeinab’s detention and treatment. On 1 May 2025, nine UN Special Rapporteurs raised serious concerns about her prolonged arbitrary detention, worsening health, and alleged torture and other ill-treatment. They urged Iranian authorities to provide her with immediate and adequate medical care in a civilian hospital, stressing that “time is of the essence”.

Over 100 days later, Iran has failed to respond and Zeinab’s condition has further deteriorated. Rather than provide appropriate care, Iranian authorities have allegedly intimidated her, pressuring her to sign a letter of repentance in exchange for treatment or release.

This coercion is part of a broader pattern in which Iranian authorities condition medical care on political silence or remorse. Zeinab has refused to give in to such tactics.

Zeinab was violently arrested in 2008, at the age of 27, in western Iran. Since 2000, Zeinab had been assisting women in Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan by providing them education and social services, as part of her active engagement on women’s rights with the social and political wings of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). One of her last activities prior to her arrest on International Women’s Day in 2008, was a visit to a girls’ high school in Kamiaran, in Iranian Kurdistan, where she talked about the importance of International Women’s Day and distributed flowers to the students.

Following her arrest, she was tortured, including by being beaten while blindfolded, flogged under her feet, threatened with rape, and held in prolonged solitary confinement by authorities seeking to force her to confess that she was a member of the PJAK. While her social and educational activism were supported by PJAK, there is no evidence she was part of its armed militant wing.

In December 2008, Zeinab was convicted on charges of Moharebeh (“waging war against God”) and sentenced to death despite a lack of credible evidence and a deeply flawed trial, where she was not granted access to a lawyer. Her sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment. In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that she was held arbitrarily because of her gender and activism for the rights of Kurdish women.

Zeinab’s case is emblematic of Iranian authorities’ repression of women and those who dissent. Former political prisoner Nasrin Parvaz warned in 2023 that the regime had intensified its use of systemic torture to silence activists since the 16 September 2022 death of Zhina Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, which sparked the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement. Today, as we mark the third anniversary of Zhina Mahsa Amini’s death, we voice deep concern that Iran has recently escalated its crackdown on dissent, with women and girls in Iran facing persecution and discrimination.

In 2024 alone, 1,023 executions were recorded, highlighting Iran’s continued use of the death penalty as a tool of repression against dissenting voices, including protesters and minorities. Among those at risk are Kurdish women activists and political prisoners such as Pakhshan Azizi, Verisheh Moradi, and Sharifeh Mohammadi, whose cases reflect the grave dangers faced by women who dissent. Recently, on 21 July 2025, six prisoners, including one woman, were reportedly executed in Yazd Central Prison, where Zeinab is currently held.

Zeinab’s prolonged detention, medical neglect, and psychological abuse illustrate the Iranian government’s deliberate strategy to punish, break, and silence political prisoners. We urge the Iranian government to take urgent steps to protect Zeinab Jalalian’s life and uphold its international human rights obligations, including by:

Immediately transferring Zeinab to a civilian hospital and providing unconditional access to adequate medical care;

Ending harassment and intimidation, including efforts to force confessions or repentance in exchange for medical care;

Releasing Zeinab – in line with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s 2016 finding that her detention is arbitrary – and putting an end to her ongoing ill-treatment.

We also call on the international community – including UN bodies and Member States – to intensify pressure on the Iranian authorities. Despite years of findings and urgent appeals, the Iranian government has refused to comply with its human rights obligations. Coordinated and sustained international action is now vital to protect Zeinab’s life and personal integrity.

Signatories:

Organisations

Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights

Ahwaz Human Rights Organization (AHRO)

All Human Rights for All in Iran

Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran (AHRAZ)

Baloch Activists Campaign

Balochistan Human Rights Group (BHRG)

Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO)

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

Justice for Iran

Kurdistan Human Rights Association-Geneva (KMMK-G)

Kurdistan Human Rights Network

Kurdpa Human Rights Organization

League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)

Omega Research Foundation

Rasank

REDRESS

Siamak Pourzand Foundation (SPF)

United against Torture Consortium (UATC – as REDRESS, IRCT, OMCT, Omega)

World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)

Individuals

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, Co-Founder of Iran Human Rights

Farkhondeh Ashena, socialist workers' rights activist, former political prisoner

Elika Ashoori, actress and activist, daughter of former hostage Anoosheh Ashoori

Nazanin Boniadi, actress and activist

Ladan Boroumand, historian and human rights activist

Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Karin Karlekar, Director of Writers at Risk initiative at PEN America

Shaparak Khorsandi, comedian and author

Ramita Navai, journalist

Nasrin Parvaz, activist, writer of 'One Woman's Struggle In Iran, A Prison Memoir'

Richard Ratcliffe, human rights activist

Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, human rights activist, former hostage and political prisoner