Iran
Narges Mohammadi has been in the infamous Evin prison since 2021 (archive image). — © Reuters
Iranian Narges Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize a month ago, has started a hunger strike. Mohammadi sent a message to her family from the infamous Evin prison, where she has been held since 2021. “We are concerned about her health.”
Last week it emerged that Iranian prison authorities are refusing to transfer Narges Mohammadi to hospital. She needs urgent medical care, but her family says she is not allowed to go to the hospital because she refuses to cover her head.
On October 6, the Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the Iranian human rights activist for ‘her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her commitment to human rights and freedom for all’. Mohammadi has been locked up in Evin prison in Tehran since 2021, where our compatriot Olivier Vandecasteele was also held. She has been arrested thirteen times and sentenced five times to prison terms of a total of 31 years and 154 lashes.
Mohammadi is one of the main faces of the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement in Iran, which emerged last year after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The Iranian-Kurdish woman died after being forcibly arrested by the moral police in Tehran for not respecting the dress code. The protests that followed were brutally suppressed by the authorities.
