“It’s difficult when you just arrive in prison, and for me it coincided with a very hot weather. The arrivals room is one of the rooms with the most difficult conditions because it’s so crowded. Despite the fans, you feel like you’re drowning in your own sweat. You need a strong mind to survive. A lot of people come out of prison with psychological problems. What affected me most was being separated from my son, who wasn’t yet two years old when I was arrested. This sudden separation was difficult. He came to visit once during my detention. He refused to let me carry him, as he was beginning to forget my face. When I got out, he no longer recognized me, and I had to leave him with his father.

“I was struck by the conditions in detention for all women, not just us political prisoners, especially pregnant women and nursing mothers. Babies learn to crawl, sit up and walk in detention. Can you imagine what life is like for women with children there? Most of the mothers in prison are just on remand. But for how long? They are in prison awaiting trial. Long pre-trial detention for mothers and pregnant women is something I feel strongly about. It would be better to put an electronic tag on them so that they don’t have to spend time in prison.”

“At 6pm, as soon as I entered the warrant officer’s office at the police station, he threw me to the ground and started hitting me. He said I knew demonstrators, I told him I didn’t, but he kept hitting me. Another man came into the office and started hitting me too. I was handcuffed so I couldn’t protect myself from the beatings. I was beaten until five or six in the morning. I went 48 hours without eating or drinking. They didn’t give me any food and they wouldn’t let my family bring me anything to eat. I have been touched by all their insults. My mother is no longer alive, and they insulted her. When they took me back to my cell, I heard the call to prayer, and I cried. I went back and forth between the cell and the warrant officer’s office. And each time I was humiliated by insults and physical violence. I just wanted to leave the station, so I signed the police report. I’m bound to have after-effects, because when they hit you, they make sure it hurts.”

“When I arrived at the prison, the guards did a body search on me. I was menstruating, but I was forced to take off my pants. The room was full of women lying on the floor. When you’re lying next to the toilet, you can’t put your mattress on the floor because those who come out of the toilet walk on it with wet feet and your mattress is soaked and dirty. For a week, the guards put me in charge of sweeping up, even though I arrived there with an injured foot. The guards treated us like rubbish. They don’t see the inmates as human beings. The wardens shout at them, insult them… When you’re outside, you hear that there are activities to help the inmates reintegrate, but there’s nothing at all. It hurt me to see these injustices. There are detention orders that last for years. There’s an intellectually disabled woman who spent six years there without being tried. It’s as if they forget their cases. When I got out, I felt the need to fight for women in prison.”

“It’s a form of detention that doesn’t respect human rights. There were 218 of us in a 70 sq m room. At night, to go to bed, one detainee would lie on the floor, and another would lie next to him, head to tail, so that they were packed in as tightly as possible, and so on with other detainees to form a line, and once the line of detainees lying on the floor was long enough, there were guys who came to push them even closer together. But there was a period when, instead of lying down, the prisoners stayed seated all night. After six months, nobody had told me what I’d done. I had made six requests for provisional release, all of which were rejected. So, I started a hunger strike that lasted 33 days. I suffered severe hypoglycaemia and was taken to an intensive care unit. I lost so many memories. When I came out, I felt like a stranger. I lost everything, my job and my savings, because life in prison is very expensive. It’s as if I had to start my life all over again.”

“Detention conditions are very inhumane, I wouldn’t say just for political prisoners, but for all prisoners. It’s unsanitary, there are food issues and overcrowding. For the first few nights, I was on my feet from 10pm to 6am. Food preparation and storage conditions are not good. Because of the overcrowding, you have access to the yard on alternate days. Prisoners are keen to get out into the yard. Access to medical care is very difficult. You have to be in a very critical situation for the guards to take you to the infirmary. I’ve been twice, but they only give you paracetamol. Access to care and medical treatment should be reviewed by the prison administration.”