Jailed Iran Activists: Guards Help Criminals Rape Us

Iranian prison guards are systematically encouraging other prisoners to rape young opposition activists, even giving them condoms to do so with, according to letters smuggled out from jailed activists. “In various cells inside the prison, rape has become a common act and acceptable,” writes one Participation Front member locked up in Rajaeeshahr prison, adding that political prisoners are routinely locked up alongside the most violent criminals.

A group of 26 prominent jailed activists has written to the prison monitoring authority and accused the government intelligence ministry and the Revolutionary Guard of being behind the sexual assaults and other harassments, the Guardian reports. Amnesty International, which documented the use of rape in Iranian prisons in a report last year, has called on the government to investigate. (More Iran stories.)