Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi began a hunger strike on Monday in protest against what she said was the jail’s failure to give her access to medical care.
Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi started a hunger strike on Monday in protest over what she said was the jail’s refusal to provide her with medical treatment, according to a family statement provided to CNN.
The Nobel laureate, a 51-year-old rights activist, received the prestigious award on October 6 in recognition of her dedication to combatting the oppression of women in Iran and her advocacy for human rights and freedom for all. However, her unwavering commitment to this cause has taken a toll on her personal life, resulting in a sentence of over 30 years in jail and a ban on seeing her husband and children.
As per her family, Mohammadi’s plea to be moved from the notorious Evin Prison in Iran, where she is currently detained, to a hospital specializing in heart and lung care for urgent medical attention was denied by an Iranian prosecutor.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that she was recently denied access to hospital treatment due to her refusal to adhere to the mandatory hijab requirement.
“It’s been a week now that they are refusing to give her the medical aid she needs,” the activist’s family said in the statement, adding that they were “concerned” about her “physical condition and health.”
Mohammadi was using the hunger strike to demonstrate against Iran’s “policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates” and its mandatory hijab policy for Iranian women, the family added.
A letter from the prison
In a letter written from Tehran’s Evin Prison earlier this year and shared with CNN, Mohammadi railed against the government’s policy of compulsory hijab, calling it a “deceitful scheme against women” and a tool “to strengthen the power of the religious government.”
When it came to power four decades ago, the Islamic Republic used the compulsory hijab to “showcase the image of domination, subjugation and control over women” as a means to control society, Mohammadi wrote.
Source: CNN