Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize final month for her advocacy for womens rights and freedom of expression in her nation, started a starvation strike on Monday whereas already coping with coronary heart and lung points in Tehrans Evin jail, the place she has been held since 2021.
The 51-year-old, whose household says she is in want of an emergency hospital switch for pressing medical care, has been forbidden from leaving the jail due to her refusal to put on a hijab, her household stated in an announcement posted to social media final week.
Mohammadis starvation strike, in accordance with one other assertion from her household on Monday, is supposed to protest the delaying and neglecting of medical look after sick inmates in addition to the necessary hijab coverage for girls.
[Iran] is accountable for something that occurs to our beloved Narges, Mohammadis household stated. Her husband informed reporters that Mohammadi, who has suffered well being issues together with a coronary heart assault in jail, plans to refuse dry meals and solely drink water with sugar or salt.
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Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, stated in an announcement on Monday that the group is deeply involved about Mohammadis well being.
The requirement that feminine inmates should put on a hijab with the intention to be hospitalized is inhumane and morally unacceptable, Reiss-Andersen stated, urging the Iranian authorities to supply obligatory medical help to Mohammadi and different feminine inmates.
Mohammadi, the deputy head of non-governmental group Defenders of Human Rights Middle, has been out and in of jail over the past decade for expenses together with spreading anti-state propaganda.
When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, Mohammadi informed the New York Instances in a written assertion that she hoped the popularity would make Irans protest motion stronger and extra organized. Victory is close to, she stated.
Ladies in Iran have lengthy been subjected to scrutinyfrom what they put on to who they socialize with. Tensions just lately got here to a head after the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, who was arrested by the countrys morality police for allegedly carrying her hijab improperly. Tens of hundreds of protesters took to the streets calling for justice for Amini and condemning the countrys oppression of girls.
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Whereas Iran was swept by the unprecedented wave of protests, Mohammadi wrote an essay within the Instances detailing how she and her fellow inmates staged their very own solidarity occasions in jail.
Regardless of the historic unrest, authorities have doubled down on the hijab coverage, which has come to represent the theocratic regimes conservatism. In July, the countrys morality police resumed its patrols and enforcement of the hijab rule, after a monthslong suspension within the wake of Aminis loss of life. Then, in September, Irans parliament handed a invoice that imposes heavier penalties for girls who refuse to put on the hijab, with sentences of as much as 10 years in jail for activists who protest towards it.
In the meantime, ladies proceed to face critical threats from conservative teams and authorities which have generally turned lethal. Simply final month, a 16-year-old died after collapsing in a subway automobile in Tehran; she was allegedly assaulted by the morality police for not carrying a hijab. And in March, over 100 folks have been arrested for the suspected poisoning of hundreds of college ladies throughout the nation, which activists allege was perpetrated by non secular teams that object to women training.
Mohammadi is the second Iranian girl to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prizeafter Shirin Ebadi, founding father of the Defenders of Human Rights Middle, in 2003and the fifth individual to obtain the prize whereas in jail or beneath home arrest. Among the many 4 different incarcerated laureates, twoGerman journalist Carl Von Ossietzky and Chinese language activist Liu Xiaobodied in captivity.
