A Christian convert who has been detained in the women’s ward of Tehran’s Evin Prison since February has suffered a spinal fracture after falling from her bunk bed.

Aida Najaflou, who is 44 years old, was taken to Taleghani Hospital for an X-ray after suffering the injury in the early hours of Sunday 31 October, but despite the severity of her injuries and ongoing health problems, she was denied proper medical treatment and returned to prison the same day – on a stretcher and still in severe pain.

This decision provoked protests from other political and religious prisoners in the women’s ward, prompting prison authorities to eventually transfer her to another Tehran hospital, Shahid Tajrish, after both intelligence agents and the presiding judge had initially refused to issue permits for her hospitalisation.

Doctors recommended that Aida received urgent surgery to repair the fracture to her T12 vertebrae, followed by a long recovery period requiring specialised care and regular physiotherapy — treatment rarely available to prisoners in Iran.

Prior to the accident, Aida had repeatedly warned prison officials that climbing to the top bunk was dangerous for her, as she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. However, despite these warnings, her requests to be transferred to a lower bed were ignored.

The Christian convert has previously endured several major surgeries and was still in recovery from a nine-hour operation when she was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents in February.

She has been repeatedly denied access to adequate medical care during her detention, which included 65 days of solitary confinement in the ward operated by the Ministry of Intelligence: Ward 209.

Human rights organisations have long accused the Iranian authorities of systematically denying medical care to prisoners of conscience as a means of coercion and punishment.

Aida remains in detention due to her family’s inability to afford the extraordinarily high bail of 11 billion tomans (approximately $130,000) set for her in May.

Heavy bail conditions have increasingly been imposed on Christian detainees. In the same month that Aida’s bail was set at the equivalent of $130,000, the wife of Aida’s co-defendant, Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, was released from Evin Prison after one month in custody upon posting bail equivalent to $50,000.

The case of Aida, Joseph, his wife Lida, Christian convert Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and another individual who has not been identified is currently under judicial review, following a second court hearing on 21 October at Branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, presided over by notorious judge Abolqasem Salavati.