Over 100 Trans Inmates Presumed Dead After Israeli AirStrike-What Could Their Crimes be???
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A view of the main entrance of the Evin prison, which is destroyed in Israeli strikes in northern Tehran, Iran, on July 1, 2025. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto/Getty Images
An Israeli airstrike on Tehran’s Evin Prison has left 100 transgender inmates missing and presumed dead, The New York Times reports.
Iranian officials said that at least 71 people were killed in the June 23 attack, including 43 prison staff members and at least four other civilians. The strike took place during Israel and Iran’s 12-day war, occurring the day before a ceasefire between the two countries began. The attack damaged four areas of Evin, including — as human rights lawyer Reza Shafakhah told the Times — a trans inmates’ section of the prison, which Safakhah said was flattened.
During a June 24 press conference held in Geneva, UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said that targeting a prison “constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
Built in 1971, Evin has been the site of thousands of Islamic Republic political prisoners’ torture and executions, per Human Rights Watch. Past inmates have included Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and Iranian-American Washington Postjournalist Jason Rezaian.
Women and LGBTQ+ people have faced “decades of repression,” in Iran according to CNN despite the country’s acceptance of gender affirming surgeries deemed compliant. In 1985, former Islamic Republic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree stating that “gender transition surgery is not in violation of [Islamic sacred law] Sharia if prescribed by trustworthy doctors.” A 2022 report by the UK’s Home Office found that roughly 4,000 gender-affirming surgeries are performed in Iran each year. Conversely, same-sex relations are prohibited by law and can lead to imprisonment (or, in the most extreme cases, execution).
Although trans people who adhere to the government’s vision of gender expression and transition might be accepted and even celebrated, they might also be forced to choose between poorly-performed mandatory gender-affirming surgeries and abuse. Transitioning doesn’t shield trans Iranians from potential bigotry, either. In a 2024 press briefing, Tehran City Council spokesman Alirez Nadali declared that trans people — whom Nadali said have “a special physical and psychological condition” — should avoid certain areas of Tehran in favor of more “inclusive” areas.
In 2019, Peace Mark Magazine reported that Evin Prison has a section known as the “Transgender Ward” on its third floor with approximately 40 large cells. Each cell has three surveillance cameras but no beds.
“When you go to the Transgender Ward, you can’t even see sunlight,” a transgender woman speaking under the pseudonym Nora told the outlet. “The human body needs sunlight… During my detention, except for the two times I was transferred to the infirmary with begging and pleading, I hadn’t seen the sunlight.”
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