According to information published by the website Voice of Kurdish and Iranian Prisoners, Zeynab Jalalian is being deprived of her right to medical care despite suffering from serious health problems.

Jalalian, who suffers from eye, kidney, stomach, and intestinal issues, was advised by doctors to undergo surgery following recent medical tests. However, the administration of Yazd Prison continues to obstruct her access to the necessary healthcare services.

It is also reported that Zeynab Jalalian has been subjected to repeated torture and insults.

Background

Zeynab Jalalian was born in 1982 in a village near Maku and became involved in the women's rights movement in Iran at an early age. In the spring of 2008, she was arrested in Kermanshah and severely tortured for eight months in a facility run by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence before being sentenced to death in an unfair show trial for “enmity against God” on charges of membership in the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK). Following international protests, Jalalian's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2011.

She is currently the only female prisoner in Iran serving this sentence. In recent years, Jalalian has also been repeatedly blackmailed by the regime into signing a pre-written “statement of repentance.” In return, she was promised medical treatment and even conditional release, which she refused.