The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner, Narges Mohammadi, began a hunger strike this Monday to protest the denial ofe medical care in prison and the mandatory use of the Islamic veil in the country.
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“Narges Mohammadi has informed his family, through a message, that he has started a hunger strike,” relatives of the activist, who suffers from health problems, indicated on the Instagram social network.
Mohammadi, imprisoned in Tehran’s Evin prison, began the hunger strike to denounce the “the Islamic Republic’s policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick prisoners.”
This lack of medical care translates into “loss of health and lives,” according to the statement released by Mohammadi’s family. The activist also wants to denounce the “policy of death or mandatory veil for Iranian women.”
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Denial of medical care The family stated that Mohammadi needs “urgent medical care” at a center specialized in lung and heart, something that the authorities of the Persian country refuse.
“They refuse to give him access to the medical care he has needed for a week,” the family members denounced. Iranian authorities last week denied transporting Mohammadi to a hospital for a lung and heart check because she refused to wear a hijab.
“A prosecutor has given orders that she not be transferred to the hospital under any circumstances if she does not cover herself with a veil.””, the activist’s family then denounced. The family expressed concern about Mohammadi’s health on Monday. and stated that they hold the Islamic Republic responsible for “what happens to our beloved Narges.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee last month awarded the prestigious award to Mohammadi “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.” The Nobel Prize also linked Mohammadi’s activism with the protests unleashed last year after the death in police custody of the young Mahsa Amini, after being arrested for not wearing the Islamic veil properly.
The Iranian Government considered granting the prize to the activist “as a political act” and a measure of “pressure” from the West. Mohammadi is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for “spreading propaganda against the state” and has been in and out of Iranian prisons for years.
His activism has cost him 13 arrests, five sentences of 31 years in prison in total and 154 lashes. The journalist and activist has not seen her children, who are in Paris, for eight years and she has spent long periods in solitary confinement.
EFE
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