Two political prisoners held in the same ward as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran’s Evin Prison have given up their right to phone calls until the authorities lift newly imposed restrictions targeting the Iranian UK dual national as well her fellow inmates in the Women’s Ward.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s weekly phone calls with her husband were canceled and her food rations decreased after she announced she would be going on hunger strike for access to medical treatment for lumps in her breast. This prompted prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and Baha’i university educator Azita Rafizadeh to give up their own phone calls in solidarity with Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Until recently, female inmates held in the Women’s Ward of Evin Prison in Tehran were allowed to make three 20-minute phone calls per week. Now, female prisoners can only make 10-minute phone calls according to a schedule set by the authorities, a knowledgeable source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
In the wards where male prisoners are held, inmates have phone access every day from eight in the morning until nine in the evening, added the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
