Death Row Iran: Inside the women's prison where inmates await execution as they bring up their babies and struggle to survive
A provocative new photography series has captured the gruelling
condition young Iranian women face in prison as they await execution.
Girls are held criminally accountable by law from the age of nine and
can be sentenced to death by hanging for crimes such as murder, drug
trafficking and armed robbery. Award-winning journalist Sadegh Souri,
who lives in Tehran, gave an insight into the lives of these women in
the Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centre as they anticipate their
fate. Mahsa, 17, (pictured left) murdered her father with a kitchen
knife after a dispute over her future husband while 17-year-old Zahra
(top left) who was imprisoned for stealing mobile phones. She is seen
caring for her newborn baby who can live with her until age two.
Mahshid, 15, (bottom right) who is charged for having an illegitimate
relationship and carrying drugs is pictured hugging a fellow inmate. An
imam visits the centre every day for prayers (centre).
COPY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Death Row Iran: Inside the women's prison where inmates await execution, bring up their babies and struggle to survive against the odds
- Sadegh Souri shot the collection of powerful images, which are titled 'Waiting for Capital Punishment'
- In Iran, girls are held accountable by law from the age of nine and can be sentenced to death
- Photographs show the harsh conditions of the juvenile detention centres in which the young women are held
- For more of the latest news updates from Iran visit www.dailymail.co.uk/iran
Sleeping
in squalid conditions, queuing for hours on end for food and struggling
to care for a newborn baby are just some of the horrifying challenges
girls in Iran's grim prison's face.
Dozens
of juvenile offenders - some of whom are just nine years old - are
languishing on death row for crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and
armed robbery.
In
Iran, the second-biggest user of capital punishment in the world, young
women can be hanged for crimes, following unfair trials, including
those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other
ill-treatment.
The
frightened girls are imprisoned in a Juvenile Delinquents Correction
Centre after their sentence verdict and a large number of the inmates
are then killed when they reach 18.
Last
year there was a disturbing escalation in the use of the death penalty
in Iran, with at least 830 people executed between 1 January and 1
November 2015. There were reports that at least four of these were
juvenile offenders.
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Mahsa is 17. She falls in love with a
boy and intends to marry him, but her father is against the marriage.
One day she has an argument with her father, gets angry, and kills her
father with a kitchen knife. Mahsa's brothers are requesting death
penalty or lex talionis for her
Female inmates can keep their newborns
with them in prison until they are two years old. Zahra has married in
14 and has two children. She is 17 now and she is in jail because of
stealing women's mobiles. She has been in prison for the same reason
three times
Shaqayeq, 15, has been in prison for
almost a year on charge of armed robbery from a chain store in Tehran.
Her grandmother had come to visit her after a year. Her death sentence
has been issued and she must reach 18 so the verdict can be carried out
Award-winning
photographer Sadegh Souri, who lives in Tehran, has given an insight to
the harsh conditions young people face in these grimy institutions as
they anticipate their fate.
Mr Souri, documentary winner at the 2015 Lens Culture visual storytelling awards, shot 17-year-old Mahsa.
She was imprisoned after killing her father with a kitchen knife in a dispute over her future husband.
Her brothers have requested the death penalty or lex-talionis - an 'eye for an eye' - for her.
Another convict is 16-year-old Nazanin. She was arrested six months ago for the possession of 621 grams of cocaine.
She is left to anxiously wait the judge's verdict.
The clergy goes to the correction
centre every day for the congregational prayer. After prayers, he talks
about the correct upbringing methods for girls and prays to God to
forgive them
The female inmates can come to the prison yard for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to exercise
The girls are photographed waiting in the queue for food. They sometimes have to stand there for hours before they are served
Nazanin is 16. She was arrested about
six months ago for the possession of 621 grams of cocaine. The judge has
not issued a verdict
Meanwhile, Shaqayeq, 15, has been imprisoned for almost a year on charge of armed robbery from a chain store in Tehran.
Although
she carried out the crime with her boyfriend, he managed to escape from
the police leaving her to take the blame alone.
Shaqayeq's grandmother visited her 12 months after she was sent to the facility.
Her death sentence has been issued and she must reach 18 before the verdict can be carried out.
One of the most heart-wrenching images is that of 17-year-old Zahra and her newborn baby.
Female inmates can keep their babies with them in the prison until they are two years old.
Zahra,
who married at 14 and has two children, is in jail for stealing women's
mobile phones. She has been in prison for the same reason three times.
Mr Souri's pictures also show the more mundane aspects of life in the correction centres.
In
the black and white photographs the inmates are pictured waiting in
line for hours on end for food, in the yard where they are allowed to
spend just two hours outside a day and praying.
The clergy goes to the correction centre every day for the congregational prayer.
After prayers, he talks about the correct upbringing methods for the girls and prays to God to forgive them.
Another
inmate is 16-year-old Sowgand. While she was home alone, officers
entered her house with a search warrant and found 250kg of opium, 30g of
cocaine and 20g of heroin.
The narcotics belonged to her father, but as only Sowgand had been at home at the time, she was arrested and detained.
It is almost one year on and none of her family members have visited her.
Mahshid is 15 and her charge is an
illegitimate relationship and carrying drugs. Her parents are in prison
too for having and using drugs. Mahshid will be released in eight months
after finishing her sentence
Khatereh is 13. Police officers found
her unconscious on the ground after a gang rape. After treatment she was
transferred to Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centre
Mahshid, 15, is charged with having an illegitimate relationship and carrying drugs.
She will be released in eight months after finishing her sentence. Her parents are also in prison for drug offences.
Meanwhile, Khatereh was forced to run away from home because her uncle raped her.
One week after she escaped she was attacked and gang raped by a group of youths in a park.
To save herself the 13-year-old wounded her arm with a knife.
Police
officers found her unconscious on the ground, and after treatment, she
was transferred to Juvenile Delinquents Correction Centre.
Dozens
of juvenile offenders are languishing on death row in Iran, a damning
new report by Amnesty International has revealed - despite Iran's claims
to have 'reformed' the way it deals with alleged capital crimes by
under-18s.
In
2014 Iran is believed to have carried out the highest number of
executions anywhere in the world except for China. The Iranian
authorities or state-controlled or state-sanctioned media officially
announced 289 executions (278 men and 11 women), though reliable sources
reported at least 454 more executions in addition to those officially
announced, bringing the total number of executions in 2014 to at least
743.
Of those officially announced, 122 involved individuals convicted of drug-related offences and 29 were carried out in public.
The
vast majority of executions in Iran are for crimes such as drug-related
offences where international law clearly prohibits the death penalty as
the offences are not 'the most serious crimes'.
Sowgand is 16. Police found 250kg of
opium, 30g of cocaine, and 20g of heroin in her home. It is almost one
year since she was detained and none of her family members have visited
her
Amnesty
International Middle East Deputy Director Said Boumedouha said: 'The
report sheds light on Iran's shameful disregard for the rights of
children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute
juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal
prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age
of 18 years at the time of the crime.
'The
report paints a deeply distressing picture of juvenile offenders
languishing on death row, robbed of valuable years of their lives -
often after being sentenced to death following unfair trials, including
those based on forced confessions extracted through torture and other
ill-treatment.
'Despite
some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of
the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as nine and boys
as young as 15 to be sentenced to death.
'Instead
of introducing half-hearted reforms that fall woefully short, Iran's
authorities must accept that what they really need to do is commute the
death sentences of all juvenile offenders, and end the use of the death
penalty against juvenile offenders in Iran once and for all.'
Journalist Mr Souri was born in 1985 in Nahavand City, Hamedan Province in Iran.
He has a BA in Photography and Cinematography from the University of Applied Science and Technology.
He started out in 2005 and then has had four solo exhibitions in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
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