Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi’s family said on Monday that she has started a hunger strike in her Iranian jail to protest restrictions on medical treatment for herself and other prisoners, as well as the need that women wear the headscarf in the Islamic republic. Mohammadi, a 51-year-old veteran rights campaigner who is being imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin jail, won the Nobel Prize in October “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran”.
“Narges Mohammadi, today, through a message from Evin Prison, has informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago. We are concerned about Narges Mohammadi’s physical condition and health,” her family mentioned in a statement.
Under no circumstances will Mohammedi wear the hijab, a head covering that has been required for women in public areas since soon after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. In response, the prison administration has declined to allow Mohammadi, who has lung and heart issues, to receive care at a hospital outside of Evin.
“Narges went on a hunger strike today in protesting two things: The Islamic Republic’s policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates… (and) the policy of ‘mandatory hijab’ for Iranian women,” the statement added.
“The Islamic republic is responsible for anything that happens to our beloved Narges,” it stated. “It’s been a week now that they are refusing to give her the medical aid she needs.”
Since her initial detention 22 years ago, Mohammadi has been in and out of jail for the majority of the last 20 years due to her advocacy for human rights in Iran.
Her most recent incarceration began in November 2021, and it has been eight years since she last saw her children, who are currently living in France.
