Iran’s Regime Mounts Pressure On Prisoners As War Rages Across The Country – OpEd

Amid ongoing United States and Israeli airstrikes targeting the Iranian regime’s military and security facilities, authorities are actively keeping thousands of prisoners, including political dissidents, in the line of fire. Following the massive nationwide uprisings of December 2025 to January 2026, the regime filled its dungeons with protesters, human rights defenders, students, and minorities.

Now, as war rages across the country, instead of ensuring their safety, the regime is refusing to grant humanitarian release to these individuals, knowingly placing them at risk of death or serious harm amidst the ongoing bombardments.

Starvation, neglect, and inhumane confinement

The situation at Fashafouyeh Prison (Greater Tehran Central Penitentiary) is highly critical. Bombardments have destroyed a section of the prison, including its food storage, leaving inmates with a severe shortage of medicine and basic necessities. Prisoners currently receive only one meal a day. Fearful of the bombings, many prison officials and guards have abandoned their posts, leaving inmates neglected while the prison store remains closed.

Under these harrowing conditions, authorities suddenly transferred 50 political prisoners from Evin Prison to Fashafouyeh without prior notice. These individuals were crammed into an unsanitary 20-person room without basic facilities, forcing most to sleep on the floor. The transferred detainees, suffering from severe hunger, are being held alongside ordinary criminals, sick prisoners, the elderly, and juveniles under 18 without any segregation.

Locked doors and violent repression amidst bombings

Rather than protecting inmates during airstrikes, suppressive forces are intentionally locking them in the path of danger and violently quelling their desperate pleas. In Ghezel Hesar Prison, doors to the courtyards and halls are kept locked, trapping prisoners with no possibility of taking shelter during bombardments, while hundreds of heavily armed NOPO suppressive forces are widely deployed around the perimeter.

In Mahabad Prison, following the bombing of a nearby military center on March 3, 2026, panicked prisoners whose ward doors had been locked protested by setting fire to their blankets, demanding release under wartime conditions. Suppressive forces ruthlessly responded by firing tear gas into the confined ward. The next day, on March 4, 2026, authorities transferred about 120 prisoners from Mahabad to Miandoab Prison, tightly packing them into two quarantine rooms. Similarly, on March 7, 2026, a wall at Fardis Prison (Kachouii) was severely damaged by bombardments, prompting deeply concerned families to gather in protest outside the facility.

A calculated policy to eliminate political dissent

The regime’s actions demonstrate a calculated policy to use the fog of war to eliminate political dissent. In early March 2026, officials explicitly told political prisoners in Evin and Urmia prisons that they would not be eligible for release, even as temporary release is considered for prisoners held for ordinary offenses.

Furthermore, authorities are subjecting prisoners to enforced disappearances, transferring them to undisclosed locations or areas dangerously close to potential military targets, while denying them adequate food and water. This sinister agenda is being shielded from the world by a draconian internet shutdown imposed since the beginning of the war on February 28, 2026, which has severely limited access to information. Consequently, the true number of detention centers affected by nearby explosions is likely much higher than currently known.

A call for immediate international intervention

The global community cannot remain silent while the Iranian regime uses military conflict as a convenient cover to slaughter the vanguard of the recent uprisings. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), emphasizedthat the lives of prisoners are in greater danger than ever. She rightly stated that the mullahs’ regime keeping prisoners under these targeted bombardments is a “double crime.” Echoing her call to action, it is imperative for the international community and human rights defenders to “take urgent action for the immediate release of all prisoners, especially political prisoners,” before a catastrophic massacre unfolds behind locked prison doors.