Severely ill detainee Maryam Gorji faces a life-threatening situation in Evin Prison after officials disregarded doctors’ findings that she is unfit for incarceration and instead demanded impossible bail.
Iran Human Rights Society, Thursday, December 11, 2025 – Maryam Gorji fights for her life inside Evin Prison. Severe illness ravages her body. Doctors already declared her unfit to serve any sentence. Yet judges refuse her release. They demand five billion tomans bail – an impossible sum. Her life hangs by a thread. Fellow inmates watch in horror. Human rights defenders sound the alarm. Maryam Gorji’s case reveals deadly indifference in Iran’s prisons.
Critical Illness Ignored: A Body Breaking Down
Maryam Gorji survived major intestinal surgery years ago. Part of her intestine remains artificial. Now constant, excruciating abdominal pain torments her. She needs a strict specialized diet. Prison food offers none of it. The pain grows unbearable. Inmates hear her cries. Some break down and weep. Stress spreads through the women’s ward.
Doctors also diagnosed serious liver disease. Medical experts warned clearly: continued imprisonment will kill her. They issued an official “incapacity to serve sentence” ruling. Iranian law demands immediate release and hospital transfer in such cases. Authorities shred that law. Maryam Gorji stays locked in Ward 6. No proper treatment reaches her. Delays pile up. Shortages worsen everything. One more day behind bars pushes her closer to death.
Judicial Cruelty: Bail Set to Kill
The case judge blocks every path to freedom. He ignores the medical ruling completely. Instead, he slaps a five-billion-toman bail on the family. No ordinary household can pay that. The demand equals a life sentence by poverty. Legal experts call it deliberate. Authorities turn a health crisis into a death warrant.
Prison officials share the blame. They control daily care. Yet they provide no effective medicine, no specialist visits, no dietary adjustments. Inmates report the same pattern again and again. Sick prisoners beg. Doctors warn. Judges shrug. Tragedy follows.
Echoes of Past Deaths: Somayeh Rashidi’s Ghost
Prisoners whisper the name Somayeh Rashidi. She died under similar circumstances in the same women’s ward. Authorities called it “suspicious” but changed nothing. Now history repeats with Maryam Gorji. Inmates fear the next funeral. They plead with guards. Guards look away. The cycle of neglect continues unbroken.
Maryam Gorji’s family speaks plainly. “Her blood will be on the hands of the judiciary and Evin Prison officials.” They accept full responsibility in advance. Any harm, any death, stems directly from this calculated indifference.
Rights Crushed: A Clear List of Violations
Maryam Gorji’s ordeal violates core human rights at every step.
- Article 3 – Right to Life Keeping a dying woman in prison directly threatens her existence.
- Article 5 – Ban on Inhumane Treatment Ignoring agony, denying treatment, and forcing harsh conditions equal torture.
- Article 9 – No Arbitrary Detention Defying an official incapacity ruling and setting impossible bail makes detention unlawful.
- Article 10 – Humane Treatment of Prisoners No medical care in a lethal environment spits on this guarantee.
- Article 25 – Right to Health Blocking timely, life-saving treatment destroys the universal right to medical care.
These breaches demand urgent action. Human rights groups call for her case a slow execution. The world cannot stay silent while Maryam Gorji slips away.