2022/10/17 Corner 24 hours
“The smoke is billowing… It feels like we are watching a war movie…” The Evin prison, north of the Iranian capital Tehran, was on fire on October 15 (Saturday). Government chants and gunfire, the chaos culminated in the death of four prisoners and the injury of 61 others.Evin prison has long been notorious for holding dissidents and political prisoners, and now with the 22-year-oldThe hijab protest movement for Amini’s deathIn the fifth week, chaos broke out in the prison, which also led local activists to believe that social demonstrations and protests may have spread to the prison and beyond the control of the government, although the authorities denied that the prison riots had anything to do with the protests .
The Evin Prison was built in 1972 and is located at the foot of the Alborz Mountain in the Evan district of northern Tehran. The internal structure is mainly divided into execution grounds, courts, and cells for men and women. Surrounded by electric barbed wire and minefields.comprehensive“Washington post”、The Wall Street Journaland“New York Times”According to reports, the riots over the weekend began in the 6th and 7th districts of the prison holding financial crime prisoners. The prisoners in the two districts were arguing. Other prisoners set fire to the chaos. Some prisoners tried to escape and detonated minefields. The riots eventually spread to other areas. Cells for political prisoners and dissidents.
Among them, in the cells where women were being held, some female prisoners broke through the door and entered the staff area, then chanted anti-government slogans. Atena Daemi, a human rights advocate who was released from Evin prison just eight months ago, quoted relatives of other prisoners as saying that prison guards warned the chanting female prisoners to hurry back to their cells or they would be killed. Then, prison guards also started firing tear gas and throwing “things like grenades”, and in the smoke-filled room, some female prisoners also reported seeing guards armed with rifles targeting them with lasers. Fortunately, the female prisoners were safe, but some suffered shortness of breath and burning eyes following inhaling large amounts of tear gas.
The riots, explosions, slogans, gunshots and billowing smoke inside the prison simultaneously aroused the attention of the public outside the prison.
There is a residential area around Evin Prison. A resident who lives nearby told The New York Times anonymously that gunshots had been heard early in the morning on the 15th, and gunshots might be heard until 9 p.m., and then came The loud explosion shattered the windows of many nearby houses, and someone might also be heard shouting “Death to the dictator”. People gathered to block the road to the prison to prevent security forces from entering, according to a video posted on Twitter by Iran Human Rights. “It felt like we were watching a war movie,” said a 22-year-old college student nearby.
The prison riot came to an end on Sunday, with Iran’s official news agency saying the situation was under control and stressed that the incident had nothing to do with the hijab protest over Amini’s death. However, it is difficult to verify whether there is a relationship between the two, including why the riot happened and who started the fire. There is no specific statement at present – especially the Iranian authorities blocked the Internet following the outbreak of the nationwide demonstrations, which made it difficult for information to flow – but from major sources Foreign media quoted local human rights activists, prisoners’ families and witnesses as saying that they generally believed that this was a phenomenon that the demonstrations had extended to prisons. The Wall Street Journal also described it as reflecting a “leaderless movement”. movement) is beyond the control of the authorities.
In fact, this riot took place in the high-security Evin prison, which is quite rare. The New York Times pointed out that Evin Prison is run by Iran’s intelligence services and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. ) died mysteriously in prison in 2018, the same year the United States announced sanctions once morest Evin prison. This prison not only detains criminals, but also detains dissidents, political prisoners and foreign prisoners. Many well-known Iranian human rights activists, journalists and students, including the famous international director Jafar Panahi, are serving their sentences in the Evin prison.
The 62-year-old Pannahi is a well-known Iranian film director. His first feature film “White Balloon” won the best new director in Cannes in 1995. From the point of view of his film creation, he was targeted by the authorities for directing a series of films that aimed at Iran’s current affairs, and many of the films that won awards at international film festivals have also become banned in Iran. Iranian authorities arrested Pannahi in 2010, accused him of “endangering national security” and “implementing propaganda once morest the Islamic Republic.” In the end, under intense international criticism and pressure, the Iranian authorities released Pannahi in 2011, but maintained a 20-year ban on filming.
But the point is that, despite being banned from filming, Panache has continued to produce since 2010. In 2010, before Panahi was arrested and imprisoned until his sentence was announced, he aimed the camera at himself and used his mobile phone to record his apartment life while awaiting sentence in a very covert way, completing his first post-ban. The film “This Is Not A Film” – the reason why this film can be made public is that he hides the flash drive in the cake, and finally succeeds in smuggling. In 2013, Panache won the Berlin Best Screenplay Award for “Closed Curtain”, and two years later successfully won the 2015 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear for “Taxi”.
Over the past few years, Panahi has repeatedly challenged the authorities’ bottom line by continuing to make movies. He was finally arrested once more in July this year and detained in Evin prison. The incident was caused by the collapse of a residential and commercial building in southwestern Iran in May, killing 43 people, and the public demanded that incompetent officials be responsible, which was suppressed by the police. To this end, Iranian film workers, including Pannahi, participated and signed the petition once morest police violence. These film workers were arrested one following another—Pannahi was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Panache was also affected by the prison riot.His wife contacted Panache following the incident, PanNahiNoting that the authorities fired tear gas at him, coupled with the fire, it all made him feel “this was the worst time of his life.” Nonetheless, Panahi’s condition is currently fine.
Perhaps no one expected that the hijab protests that erupted in September would continue to this day, setting off one of the most serious challenges the authorities have faced since the Iranian revolution in 1979. On September 13, Amini, a 22-year-old woman, was arrested and detained by the moral police because the way she wore a headscarf was considered to be inconsistent with the local clothing regulations. She died following being beaten and unconscious on September 16. The incident immediately triggered a wave of demonstrations and protests across the country. The demands have escalated from “protesting once morest dress regulations” to “overthrowing the government.” At present, although the prison riots have come to an end, demonstrations outside the prison continue. Demonstrations were still held at universities in some areas on Sunday under the deployment of riot police, and AFP pointed out that students at a university in Tehran also chanted slogans: “Iran has become a big prison, Evin prison has become a slaughter. field.”
Statistics of Iranian Human Rights Organization, As of October 12, 201 people have died in the demonstrations and protests, including 23 children under the age of 18. And with the more powerful repression by the government, the resistance of the people has become more and more fierce. So far, there is no trend of slowing down, and the people’s resistance will eventually continue to counterattack in different forms and different channels – just like this prison riot, like Pannahi continued to make films despite the ban, just like the flash drive in the cake – this struggle will not be just a war movie, but an important historical record of Iran.
For more articles, please subscribe to the Corner International Facebook page:
