Evin Prison

Evin Prison (Persian: زندان اوین, romanized: Zendân-e-Evin) is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. Established in 1972, and particularly notorious since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it has become the Islamic Republic's most infamous detention facility. The prison serves as the primary site for incarcerating political prisoners, journalists, academics, human rights activists, dual nationals, and foreign citizens accused of espionage or propaganda offenses. The prison has become internationally known for its systematic human rights abuses. Numerous reports document torture methods such as beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, prolonged solitary confinement, forced confessions, sleep deprivation, and sexual abuse. In recent years, cases such as the mistreatment of imprisoned scholar Mahvash Seydal have highlighted the regime's deliberate denial of medical care to female political prisoners as a form of punishment. A deadly fire in October 2022 further exposed the prison's chaotic conditions and the authorities' failure to protect detainees. Evin Prison has become a symbol of the Islamic Republic's apparatus of repression, silencing dissent through fear, violence, and psychological terror. Often likened to 'Iran's Bastille,' it holds a special place in the political imagination of many Iranians, symbolizing the Islamic Republic's absolutist rule and intolerance of dissent. People have been detained in Evin Prison for reasons including political dissent, activism, alleged espionage, and religious beliefs, particularly those of religious minorities like the Baháʼí community and Christian converts. Several foreign nationals, including journalists such as Italian reporter Cecilia Sala, have been detained at Evin, often used as political leverage in Iran's international negotiations. Evin Prison has been repeatedly condemned by international organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Rapporteur, and Iranian human rights groups for the atrocities committed within its walls. On 23 June 2025, Israeli airstrikes targeted the prison. According to Iranian media, activists and human...