Maryam Akbari Monfared, a political prisoner and supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), who has spent over sixteen years in prisons under Iran’s regime, is now facing severe health deterioration in Qarchak Prison in Varamin. Despite her critical condition, judicial and prison authorities have completely neglected her need for urgent medical treatment.
According to sources close to her family, Maryam Akbari Monfared suffers from several illnesses including hypothyroidism, liver complications, and chronic pain in her back and knees, and her condition has reached an alarming stage. The source stated that five medical specialists—including a neurosurgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, and forensic medical experts—have all emphasized the need for “immediate surgery on her back and knees.”
Nevertheless, not only has the treatment process not started, but even her medical requests and follow-ups by her lawyer have received no clear response. According to the source: “Maryam has repeatedly experienced numbness in her legs and impaired knee mobility in recent months. Doctors have warned that this may lead to spinal cord damage and even incontinence.”
Political Prisoner and PMOI Supporter Maryam Akbari Monfared Transferred to New Prison
Maryam Akbari Monfared is the only political prisoner in Qarchak Prison who is held among inmates with common criminal charges, in violation of the principle of separation of crimes. In a new case opened against her, charges such as “spreading false information” and “propaganda against the state” have been brought charges frequently used by the regime to silence dissent. This is while her fifteen-year prison sentence has already ended, and these accusations have been made while she is still behind bars.
Prison authorities have even made her lawyer’s visit conditional upon “official approval from a judge”—a discriminatory practice applied only to political prisoners.
Maryam Akbari Monfared, who has spent a large part of her life in prison for seeking justice for the victims of the 1980s executions (which took place during the 1980s in the Iranian calendar, equivalent to the 1980s-1990s Gregorian years), now faces a serious threat to her life.
On December 28, 2022, she wrote from Semnan Prison:
“If you ask me how I endured the darkness of torture and the exhaustion of time, I’ll say it was the wild flame of faith in my heart that kept me standing.
In the solitude and with empty hands, this warm and defiant flame is the very thing interrogators try to snatch from the prisoner from the moment of arrest… so that their spirit freezes and yields to subjugation… But for thirteen years, I kept it burning with sacred rage from the tortures I witnessed and endured. I laughed and spread that laughter so that I and we could stand tall. Because resistance is the heart of us.
Faith in the path my brothers and sisters gave their lives for, faith in the road I stepped on, and faith in the clenched fists and firm steps of the youth who now stand in the streets with their bodies and souls against dictatorship…”
On August 6, 2022, on the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran, which included two of Maryam Akbari’s siblings, she wrote:
“There is no escape from justice… I have vowed not to rest until every single person who ordered or carried out the massacre of our loved ones is brought to trial… Our wounds are still fresh—not thirty years have passed, not even three days for us!
We have risen to seek justice so that no other family will have to mourn again, and we insist on justice.
The dawn of justice will shine through the dark and stormy clouds, and on that day, we will feel love with all our hearts. Victory is ours.”
Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared was arrested in Tehran on December 31, 2009.
Two of Maryam Akbari Monfared’s brothers, Gholamreza and Alireza Akbari Monfared, were executed in 1981 and 1984 respectively, on charges of affiliation and support for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Her younger brother, Abdolreza Akbari Monfared, and her sister, Roghieh Akbari Monfared, were also executed during the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988.
