The publication of Amnesty International’s latest report earlier this month on the conditions suffered by political prisoners and other detainees in Iran’s medieval jails should provide a wake-up call for Western politicians keen to appease the theocratic regime. Amnesty says that prisoners, detained following the nationwide uprising in 2022, have been subjected to rape and sexual assault, aimed at intimidating protesters and opponents of the regime. The report documents in harrowing detail the ordeals experienced by 45 survivors of the countrywide protests, including 26 men, 12 women and 7 children, all of whom were subjected to rape, gang rape and other forms of sexual violence.

The report identifies those responsible for the rape and sexual violence as members of the paramilitary Basij, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the ministry of intelligence and security forces (MOIS), and various branches of the police, including the Public Security Police (police amniat-e omoumi), the Investigation Unit of Iran’s police (agahi), and the Special Forces of the police (yegan-e vijeh). In a horrifying section the report says: “State agents raped women and girls vaginally, anally and orally, while men and boys were raped anally. Survivors were raped with wooden and metal batons, glass bottles, hosepipes, and/or agents’ sexual organs and fingers. Rape took........

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