UPDATE 3 JUNE 2026: Mahshar Parandin was sent to hospital last week for a test, but returned to prison without being treated. “This is despite the fact that the prison’s medical doctor has diagnosed that she needs a cardiac angiogram and surgery for the tumours,” a source told the Persian-language Human Rights Activists News Agency. Sources told Article 18 that Mahshar’s tumours have continued to grow visibly, not only affecting her balance, movement and speech but also putting her at risk of losing sight in one eye.
Christian convert Mahshar Parandin, an artist who is around 50 years of age, is serving a two-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison (pictured). She has two tumours and severe heart disease, but is being denied the medical care she badly needs. One of the tumours is near her cerebellum, at the back of the brain, while the second is in her throat and is reported to have grown visibly larger.
A source familiar with Mahshar’s condition said prison doctors had warned that she needs immediate surgery because the tumour near her cerebellum has affected her vision, speech, balance and movement. “The effects of the illness are visible in the way she walks and speaks,” the source said.
Mahshar has served more than half her sentence and should be eligible for parole, but the prosecutor has rejected her request for conditional release.
Documentation required for temporary medical leave has been submitted to the prosecutor’s office, but despite recommendations from prison medical staff the authorities have not approved Mahshar’s transfer for treatment and have rejected her request for medical leave.
Mahshar is a widow with a teenage son, who suffers from a chronic illness and has faced difficulties during her imprisonment.
Denial of medical care to prisoners is one of the rights violations regularly referenced in reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran. For years rights groups and prisoners’ families have accused Iranian prison authorities of denying adequate medical care to political prisoners, and several detainees have died in custody after prolonged illness or delayed treatment.
(Article 18, Human Rights Activists News Agency, Iran International)
Photo credit: Wikipedia/Eshan Iran