Nasrin Parvaz, who spent nearly a decade locked up after initially being sentenced to death in Iran, has pleaded with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to reconsider asylum rules
Nasrin Parvaz is living in exile in London after spending years behind bars in Iran’s notorious prison system(Image: Dave Burke/Mirrorpix)
A torture survivor who endured years of brutality in one of the world’s most notorious jails has pleaded with ministers to abandon a planned asylum shake-up.
Nasrin Parvaz said refugees are being scapegoated and warned that forcing people to return to their homelands will cost lives. She fled to the UK to escape state police after spending nearly a decade behind bars in her native Iran – having initially been sentenced to death. Her “crime” was to lobby for equal rights for women and higher wages.
During her time in jail – including the infamous Evin Prison close to Tehran – Nasrin was beaten so badly that she was paralysed for weeks and scarred for life. From her cell she heard the gunshots that ended the lives of numerous friends and allies.
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Nasrin was sentenced to death at the age of 23 after being arrested in Tehran
Now she warns that hatred directed at those who seek sanctuary in the UK is leaving thousands like her terrified – and accused the Government of amplifying it.
The 67-year-old said: “In Iran I was suffering from systemic sexism, here is systemic racism. We escape and we think now we have survived the torture, arrest, execution. But the trauma doesn’t stop because of systemic racism. It’s following us, it’s all the time.
“It’s in the news all the time. We hear it all the time. You hear you’re unwanted. And this is a new trauma. Racial attacks will increase and the propaganda against us is poisoning people.”
Last month Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a shake-up that will see those given refugee status forced to undergo reviews every two-and-a-half years.
If their homeland is deemed to have become safe in that time, they face being removed. “I know people who have been in exile for more than 20 years, who were no longer politically active against the regime,” Nasrin said.
“And then they were arrested when they went to see their dying parents. Some people believed they were safe and returned later. Many of them were assassinated inside the country. I knew one person who was killed and his body left in the street.”
She said language used by politicians and public figures and public figures is directing anger to the wrong places.
“They are blaming us for something that we have not done,” Nasrin said. “It’s the powers who should be blamed for what they have done to us, causing our displacement. No one wants to leave their family and friends, I didn’t want to.”
She said that if the Government wants to stop the flow of refugees, it should stand up to autocrats who imprison and execute political activists.
“If these regimes are under pressure to release all the political prisoners and stop executions there won’t be refugees,” Nasrin stated.
“There won’t be asylum seekers. But instead of blaming the cause, instead of blaming themselves, they have to blame us. Instead of this bitter, poisonous propaganda against us, there is a solution.
“The media is full of rhetoric against us. If we could talk to people, for example, I would tell them that the only way to stop the movement of people due to persecution is through universal rights.”
Nasrin, who was arrested in Tehran in 1982 and sentenced to death in a hastily convened trial, was held in a blood stained cell in Evin Prison for a year before learning her life would be spared.
But many were not so lucky. After her release Nasrin discovered she was being followed by state police and fled the country fearing for her safety.
Even now she said she would face arrest if she returned, and Nasrin did not go back to say goodbye to her parents. She warned against moving asylum seekers onto military bases or former prisons, stating: “As an ex prisoner, I cannot imagine coming here and staying in prison until my case was processed.
“Prison is torture. And keeping people in prison until their case is processed means torturing people for escaping torture.”
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Under new measures – which have already provoked a furious backlash – people granted asylum will have to wait 20 years to apply to settle permanently. And those granted the protection will have their status reviewed every two-and-a-half years, the Home Secretary announced.
Ms Mahmood has also proposed ripping up the legal duty to support asylum seekers, and giving authorities the right to seize valuables from small boat arrivals.
In a policy document published last month, Ms Mahmood said her predecessors had not been tough enough. She wrote: “We have shown ourselves unwilling to show the necessary toughness or resolve to assert our right to return those with no right to be here.”
And the Government has also called for Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) – the absolute right prohibiting torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment – to be reinterpreted.
Natasha Tsangarides, Associate Director of Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, said: “Stories like Nasrin’s are shared in our therapy rooms every single day. People come to us after surviving torture in countries like Iran, Eritrea and Sudan simply for standing up for the same freedoms we take for granted in Britain – like going to school or loving whomever you choose.
“The trauma they carry is immense, but so too is their determination to rebuild their lives in safety. But instead of keeping people like Nasrin firmly in mind, the Home Secretary continues to announce hostile rules that will punish those who have already lost everything. Survivors will be cut off from safety, stability and hope.
“Stripping away protections that stop survivors being sent back into the hands of their torturers is not who we are as a county. The Government can and must do better. People’s lives depend on it.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government is committed to protecting the integrity of our asylum system while safeguarding genuine refugees fleeing war and danger. As part of sweeping reforms, we will open new, safe and legal routes to protect those in need.
“No individual will be returned to an unsafe country if they face a risk of persecution or serious harm.”