Woman prisoner banned from having visitors for six years

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The rights violations faced by five political prisoners in Mardin Type E Women's Closed Prison are aggravating with each passing day.

Lawyers Jiyan Kaya and Jiyan Tosun from the Legal Aid Bureau Against Sexual Harassment and Rape in Detention visited women prisoners in Mardin Prison last week and listened to their complaints.

'Their rights suspended due to pandemic'

Speaking to bianet about the problems of women, lawyers have raised concerns that pressures and violations of rights targeting women are escalating. Noting that the women are given disciplinary punishments for lame excuses, Kaya and Tosun have shared the following information:

"All rights of women have been suspended in Mardin Prison on the pretext of pandemic. For instance, they want to take them outside their wards and count them there. Women do not accept this and object. One of the women has been given solitary confinement for 210 days.

"Melek Evren, one of the women, is also given solitary confinement. She is also ill and not referred to hospital. Another prisoner has been banned from having visitors for six years. Both of them make applications to go to hospital, but they cannot even get an answer to their applications.

'They even search inside their bras'

"There is also another problem: When women go to hospital and return, they are quarantined in a room with really bad conditions. That room has neither a ventilation system nor a window.

"In other words, women are again faced with two bad situations. No matter how much they request it, they are not referred to a hospital. When they do, they are put in a really bad quarantine room.

"The health conditions of some of them are so bad that they want to be referred, risking being quarantined in that room, but they are still not hospitalized. Moreover, naked body search is imposed on women. They complain about this, some women are searched even inside their bras."

'They are arbitrary actions'

Lawyers Tosun and Kara have underlined that banning prisoners from meeting their visitors for such a long time is unlawful and called on the prison administration to put an end to these arbitrary practices.

They have also noted that the voices of women prisoners are not heard by the public much, inviting all human rights defenders to be a voice for them. (EMK/SD)