Iran: Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner goes on hunger strike to protest hijab law

Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi started a hunger strike on Monday to protest the nation’s requirement that women wear headscarves and to express his frustration at being denied access to medical care along with other prisoners, according to a campaign supporting the activist.

The 51-year-old’s decision puts more pressure on Iran’s theocracy regarding her imprisonment, which began a month after she was granted a Nobel Prize for her years of activism in spite of a government campaign that lasted decades to target her.

Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, another activist who is behind bars, is said to require medical attention that she has not yet received. She was detained while not donning a hijab and attending a funeral in Tehran’s Metro for a teenage girl who passed away under questionable circumstances.

She sent a message from Evin Prison, according to the Free Narges Mohammadi campaign, “informing her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago.” According to the report, Mohammadi and her attorney had been requesting her transfer to a specialised hospital for heart and lung care for weeks.

Although it mentioned that Mohammadi had an echocardiogram, it did not go into detail about the ailments she had.

“Narges went on a hunger strike today … protesting two things: The Islamic Republic’s policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates, resulting in the loss of the health and lives of individuals. The policy of ‘death’ or ‘mandatory hijab’ for Iranian women,” the statement read.

It added that the Islamic Republic “is responsible for anything that happens to our beloved Narges.”

It is typical of Iranian authorities and the country’s state-run media to overlook Mohammadi’s hunger strike, even in situations where he is an activist. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Iran’s UN mission.

Although women are employed, hold academic positions, and are even appointed by the government, their lives are strictly regulated. Laws mandate that women cover their hair with a headscarf, or hijab. The only nations that still require that are neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran. But since Amini’s passing, more women are opting not to wear it in spite of a growing government campaign that targets them and companies that cater to them.

Despite being imprisoned for years and being arrested multiple times by Iranian authorities, Mohammadi has continued her activism. Since the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody last year, she has continued to be a leading figure in the nationwide women-led protests that have become one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government.

Mahsa Amini, the woman, was taken into custody for allegedly refusing to cover her head to the satisfaction of the authorities. Teenage Armita Geravand was hurt in the head in October while riding the Tehran Metro without a headscarf. In footage released by the state media, Geravand’s parents said that their daughter’s injuries may have been caused by a fall, a blood pressure problem, or possibly both. Foreign activists claim Geravand might have been shoved or attacked for not donning the hijab. She died weeks later.

Sotoudeh, a 60-year-old human rights attorney, was taken into custody by the authorities while she was at Geravand’s funeral. Last week, “50 police and security personnel charged at the peaceful group, beating some and dragging others across gravestones as they were arrested,” according to PEN America, a global organisation that defends free speech.

According to PEN America, Sotoudeh was not donning a headscarf when she was taken into custody and as a result, she has been experiencing chronic headaches.

(With agency inputs)