From the Times – ‘Don’t forget their names’: the women on Iran’s death row:
Like other 21-year-olds, Taraneh Rahimi had big plans for her future. A passionate horse rider, she dreamt of owning her own stable one day. Her twin sister, Romina, would be by her side.
But on August 31, Taraneh was sentenced to death, while Romina received a 25-year prison sentence. Both women had taken part in the anti-regime protests that flooded Iran in January, their cousin, Masoud Nourmohammadi, told The Times.
About two weeks after the protests, masked men detained the sisters. They were held for months in solitary confinement in Isfahan, in central Iran, and subjected to torture without access to lawyers, according to Nourmohammadi.
“They’re broken,” he said. “When you’re 21, every normal person in the world should be building their future. They took that away from them and gave them so much trauma and pain.”…
The Rahimis were convicted on charges related to “waging war against God”. But according to their case files, the only evidence against them was “a mention of a ‘confession’ by Taraneh, which was taken under torture”, Nourmohammadi, who lives in Utah, said. The sisters told their lawyers that they had been sexually assaulted by their captors.
“The interrogators hit the girls with batons and tortured them in front of each other,” said Nourmohammadi, 43. “In the end, they told Taraneh, ‘If you don’t sign this paper, we’ll rape your sister in front of you.’ She didn’t know what she was signing. She just didn’t want anything to happen to her sister.”
It’s common practice in Iran for young women to be raped the night before their execution, as virgins go to heaven. This is Islamic justice.
Taraneh was beaten so badly that she suffered a broken skull, which led to an inner-ear infection and a loss of balance, Nourmohammadi said. When her mother recently visited the prison, Taraneh was using a wheelchair. The family’s requests for adequate medical treatment have been denied, he said.
The indefatigable Masih Alinejad regularly highlights the plight of these young women – tortured, raped, and executed in Iranian jails.
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