Words and Images Speak Louder Than Silence: Nasrin Parvaz Tells the Untold

Nasrin was born in Tehran, and after the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, she watched in horror as the new regime swiftly imposed strict gender segregation laws and severely curtailed the civil rights of women and girls. She became a women’s and civil rights activist and was imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death in 1982. Her sentence was commuted to ten years, and she was released in 1990. Fuelled by her anger at the injustices and horrors she experienced and witnessed, she bravely resumed her activism. Eventually, the threat of imprisonment forced her to flee her family and her country. She arrived in the UK in 1993 and was granted asylum in 1994.

Speaking with Nasrin, it is obvious that she is a courageous woman and that she remains passionate about sharing the narratives of the women and men who continue to fight for human rights in Iran and of the many who are lost in prisons subjected to torture, interrogation and violation of their most basic human rights every day. She explained that innocent people captured by the authorities have no means of communicating with the outside world, and often, their own families do not know where they are being kept or even why. Nasrin explains it as a means of erasing the prisoners’ voice, identity, and dignity. She asked TogetherintheUK to give voice to victims lost to the world, victims whose voices have been silenced.

The story of Zeinab Jalalian is difficult to read. Still, the mission of TGIUK is to share stories to amplify the voices of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants and those whose voices have been taken away. If we choose not to share or read these narratives, we allow the cycle of abuse to continue. Zeinab was arrested in December 2007; she was only 25 years old. Initially, she was charged with waging war against Allah and was sentenced to death. Her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. After many years of imprisonment and torture, she is in severe poor health, suffering from loss of eyesight, asthma, and kidney disease, amongst many other ailments. However, she is denied access to health care until she makes videotaped “confessions” repenting her so-called crimes. She is regularly moved from prison to prison, another form of torture and degradation and is currently in Yazd Prison. Nasrin shared an emotional extract from a letter smuggled out from Zeinab to her mother, a mother who has not been allowed to visit her daughter in all the years she has been in prison.

Is this my right? My pen is unable to describe my pain and distress. They blindfolded me, tore off my clothes, chained me to an iron bed and lashed my feet with a cable. My feet became black and swollen under bastinado {the canning of the soles of feet as a form of punishment}. Eventually, I didn’t feel anything. My entire body became numb. Under torture, I had my beliefs and my hope for women who are struggling for a better future. How can I witness the execution of my friends and say nothing? They are asking me to confess to wrongdoing in order to receive medical treatment. How can I regret struggling against them?

I asked Nasrin why so many men—especially those who invoke religion as justification—fear women to the extent that they subjugate them and deny them basic human rights. She believes it comes down to control: if you can dominate and supress half the population—namely, women—you can effectively control the entire society, particularly when that oppression serves the interests of the other half. In Iran, she witnessed firsthand how men often benefitted from misogynistic laws and even enabled their enforcement.

But Nasrin is quick to note that the landscape is changing. Today, more Iranian men are actively engaged in the fight for equality. Some have even been imprisoned for speaking out against the same human and civil rights violations that women face. Both men and women risked their freedom—and, in many cases, their lives—during the protests that erupted after the 2022 killing of Mahsa Amini. Together, they stand behind the Woman Life Freedom revolution, united in their demand for justice.

These women and men are still protesting, but today, they choose to use creative expression as forms of resistance. Through writing, music, paintings, graffiti, videos, public dancing, theatres and social media activism, they are documenting abuse, demanding accountability, and sharing the atrocities committed in their country.

Shervin Hajipour Anthems of protest such as the Grammy award-winning “Baraye” by Iranian musician or the defiant music of rapper Toomaj Salehi now stand alongside the writing and artwork of Nasrin-each a vital voice in the collective struggle for justice and freedom.

Nasrin continues to write, but since she began painting in 2017, she has discovered a medium that communicates with immediate impact. Her artwork exposes the horrors she witnessed during her time in prison—images so harrowing that some viewers refuse to believe they reflect reality. And that disbelief, she says, is precisely the point. Her art is not just creative expression; it is evidence. Each piece is a visual record of the truths the regime seeks to bury.

“I can’t ignore what I saw or experienced,” she told me. “I have to do something—share these stories—or it will consume me. The anger and frustration I feel fuels me. We can only create change by breaking the silence.

While Nasrin’s creative work is driven by a desire to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Iran and inspire global action, it has also been a deeply cathartic journey for her. The support she has received from organisations such as Freedom From Torture, along with her involvement with Exiled Writers Ink, has been instrumental in helping her find her voice, reclaim her dignity, and gather the strength to continue her campaign.

To learn more about Nasrin please go to her website at www.nasrinparvaz.org

To learn about the TGIUK poetry evening, read the blog Refugee Poetry Hour; poetry by Lester Gomez Medina and Nasrin Parvaz | TogetherInTheUK

To read more stories of asylum seekers and migrants, purchase a copy of Hear Our Stories, An Anthology of Migrant Writings, compiled by TogetherintheUK, go to TGIUK

To read more about the lives and impacts of migrants on UK society, go to TogetherintheUK.