Protest Outside HMP Bronzefield in solidarity with the #Filton10

Of the remaining 5 female detainees at Bronzefield, many of the speakers raised concerns about the treatment of Fatema Zainab. She is particularly being targeted with restrictions and abuse the other women don’t face. Many of these are specifically to do with her being a Muslim, some outright Islamophobic discrimination. Some of these are highlighted below:

• Hijab. She was forced to remove her hijab and then photos taken of her without hijab. Clips to hold her hijab in place were confiscated, and then prison guards mocked her saying there was no point in her wearing hijab, as having taken her clips, it was not going to stay on anyway. Male guards enter her cell at any time, puposely unannounced not to give Fatema Zainab time to put her hijab on.
  
  
• Prayer Books. She is being denied Islamic prayer books as none of the prison’s authorised resellers sell Islamic prayer books. Her mother brought a prayer book to prison which was confiscated from reaching Fatema Zainab. The two Muslim chaplains at HMP Bronzefield confirmed that prayer books come under religious items and they promised to source it, but both have since resigned. With their departure,  Friday prayers and Islamic sessions have seized – one of the few activities Fatema Zainab was allowed to participate in under the arbitrary Non-Association Order.
  
  
• Medical Tests. She has been forced to submit to  degrading “random” intrusive medical tests. She has had to submit to 5  “random” urine tests in 2 months. The Prison Service Order 3601 states that 5% of the prison population should be randomly tested for drugs each month – last year HMP Bronzefield tested 4.8% of prisoners. She has been tested 50x that rate. She has no history of taking drugs. The last time when she challenged the testing, they said it was for a pregnancy test! It is categorically illegal to test a prisoner for pregnancy without her consent.  When one considers the degrading way these intimate tests are carried out, with loss of dignity and privacy, such frequent testing is clearly designed to humiliate her as a Muslim woman who values modesty.
  
  
• Denial Of Mail. She is the only #Filton10 who is being denied all mail. We estimate well over 100 letters have been sent to her. We ourselves have hand delivered nearly 60 letters,  postcards and painting to the prison, some 6 weeks ago. None have reached her. When she asks the guards where is her mail, she is told there is none.

Three weeks ago the Resistance kitchen wrote to the director of the prison, Jonathan French, raising these concerns. He has not replied.