ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian prison authorities have told four Kurdish prisoners to hand their young children over to family members or they will be put into the welfare system, a human rights monitor reported on Saturday. “The authorities of Qarchak and Evin prisons have summoned four Kurdish political prisoners who are Turkish nationals, named Rojda Saadon, Safiye Tursu, Fesih Karatas, and Mazlum Arli, and informed them that if they do not sign a commitment letter agreeing to hand over their children to their families, their children will be transferred to the welfare organization the following day,” stated the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). The two couples, originally from Turkey, were arrested in Tabriz along with their children while en route to Armenia. They had previously sought political asylum in the Kurdistan Region, according to KHRN. In Iran, children can stay with their mothers in prison until the age of two, after which they are placed with family or into a children’s home. These children frequently endure harsh conditions in the prisons including overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and lack of proper nutrition, Iran Human Rights NGO said in a report published last December. “During the most vulnerable phase of their development… they are deprived of education tailored to their needs and exposed to physical, psychological, and even sexual harm,” Hamed Farmand, head of the US-based Children of Prisoners International, said in the report. These conditions are “in direct violation of their fundamental rights,” he added.
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