ISTANBUL , Turkey ( CNN ) -- Two Iranians who were caught up in the waves of arrests that followed the disputed presidential elections in June have accused their captors of raping them . By telling his story , Ibrahim Sharifi says , he `` committed social suicide so this incident would n't happen to others . '' An Iranian man and a woman made the allegations in separate interviews with CNN . Both said they fled to Turkey from Iran after claiming to have been threatened by Iranian security services . While CNN does not normally use the names of alleged rape victims , their names are included here with their permission . CNN could not independently confirm their accounts . But the testimony of one of the alleged rape victims , Ibrahim Sharifi , was revealed last month by a prominent Iranian opposition leader who claimed to have gathered at least four accounts of sexual assault this summer in Iranian prisons . Sharifi 's allegations were also included in a report published last week by two Western human rights organizations investigating reports of abuse in Iranian prisons . `` What we 're encountering are numerous accounts of brutality , poor treatment , even torture , serious beatings , and a couple of cases , as you know , of alleged sexual assault -- rape , '' said Joe Stork , Middle East deputy director for Human Rights Watch . The Iranian government has launched two investigations into the allegations . Iran 's judiciary concluded there was no evidence of rape . A parliamentary fact-finding committee is still working on the issue . Repeated calls by CNN to get reaction from Iranian officials to the claims of the alleged victims did not result in a response . `` Take him and get him pregnant '' Twenty-four-year-old Ibrahim Sharifi is a university student from Tehran who campaigned actively on the Internet for opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi in the run-up to the controversial June 12 vote . When incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner , Sharifi joined the throngs of angry protesters in the streets who accused the government of rigging the election . On June 22 , Sharifi said , he was kidnapped , handcuffed , blindfolded and stuffed into a car by three unknown men while he was walking home from language lessons at the Italian Embassy . He said they drove him to an unknown location , where he was stripped to his underwear . There , he said , he endured several days of beatings and mock executions alongside other male prisoners , all the time tightly blindfolded . Watch Ibrahim Sharifi describe being tortured and sexually assaulted » . `` They took us and they put a noose around my neck in a way that I was forced to stand on my tiptoes , unable to breathe , '' Sharifi said . `` Somebody was constantly telling us ... 'You have received the oral sentence to be hanged , we are just waiting for the written order . ' '' `` There was the stink of piss and blood . It smelled terrible , '' Sharifi recalled . `` I was beaten so much I did n't have any energy left to cry . '' On the fourth day of his detention , during one of these mock executions , Sharifi said he finally snapped . `` I said , if you want to kill us , go ahead . Why do you play such games with us ? And the response was a kick in my stomach that made me fall . '' Sharifi said his captors kicked him repeatedly in the stomach until he started vomiting blood . He showed a pink scar on his belly from a previous car accident that he said was torn open by the blows . `` Then the guy told someone else , 'Take him and get him pregnant , ' '' Sharifi said , his voice cracking with emotion . `` They tied my hands to the wall and tied my legs , and then did that thing to me . While doing it , he was telling me , `` You , who can not even defend your you-know-what , you wanted to conduct a revolution ? '' Sharifi said he blacked out during the rape and woke up later , handcuffed to a hospital bed . A day later , he said , his captors dumped him , blindfolded , on the side of a highway . `` I was raped . Raped four times '' Twenty-one-year-old Maryam Sabri spoke to CNN by telephone from a Turkish city where , like Sharifi , she is waiting for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees to process her request for asylum . She said she was arrested by men in plainclothes on July 30 while attending a ceremony at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan , the Iranian woman whose death was captured by cell phone camera after she was shot during a protest in the streets of Tehran . `` When I asked them where was I being taken to , why have you arrested me , who are you ? '' their response was a constant slap on my face , '' Sabri recounted . Sabri said she was interrogated several times after being detained . The sexual assault began during the third interrogation , she said . `` He said , 'OK , you wanted your vote back ? Now I 'm going to give back your vote . '' It was then that I was raped . Raped four times , '' she said . `` My hands were tied and my eyes were blindfolded , '' she said . `` He threw me on the ground while pressing my throat with one hand , and both my legs were under the weight of his legs so I could n't move at all . '' Sabri said the last time she was raped , her assailant took off her blindfold and said he would release her on the condition that , once out of prison , she remain in contact with him and cooperate with him . Several days after her release , Sabri said the alleged rapist , described as a man in his late 30s with light eyes and several days ' worth of stubble , began calling her on her cell phone and threatening her . She fled Iran several weeks later and applied for refugee status in Turkey . Rape as punishment ? Human rights organizations Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have expressed alarm about the reports of sexual assault in prison . `` The issue is , are the authorities using rape as a tool to pressure people , to punish people ? '' asked Stork , the Middle East deputy director for Human Rights Watch . `` In the case of the one individual , Ibrahim Sharifi , it appears it was a punishment . '' Iran 's parliament and judiciary launched investigations into the allegations . But last month , Iranian security forces raided the offices of Karrubi , the opposition presidential candidate and longtime advocate for prisoners ' rights who first publicized the rape allegations . The offices of another opposition candidate , Mir Hossein Moussavi , were also raided in September . Iran 's powerful conservative parliamentary speaker , Ali Larijani , said a special committee of Iran 's parliament , or Majlis , conducted a `` precise and comprehensive inquiry '' into the treatment at Tehran 's Evin and Kahrizak prisons and found `` no cases of rape or sexual abuse , '' government-funded Press TV reported last month . Larijani accused Karrubi of spreading `` sheer lies . '' However , not everyone was persuaded by the investigation . `` The Iranian authorities appear more intent on finding the identities of those who claim to have been tortured by security officials than in carrying out an impartial investigation , '' said Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan . Sabri and Sharifi are members of a growing population of expatriate Iranian dissidents in Turkey . Both face an uncertain future as refugees here and worry about the safety of their families back in Tehran . Sabri claims her father was arrested after she first went public with her rape testimony on the U.S. government-funded network Voice of America . Sharifi , meanwhile , said that before he fled Iran , government investigators accused him of lying about his prison experience for money ... charges he angrily denies . `` I broke a taboo in Iran , '' he said , weeping . `` I sat in front of the camera and committed social suicide so this incident would n't happen to others . '' `` I want the whole world to know that Iran 's problems are not only limited to the nuclear issue , '' he said . `` The Iranian regime plays games with other countries of the world . It plays the same games with its own nation and people . ''
Iranian expatriate women describe rapes in graphic detail . Male , female Iranian dissidents gave separate interviews to CNN . Both are in Iran , claiming they fled after threats from security services . They were arrested after disputed May 12 presidential election .