Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, commenced a hunger strike on Monday to protest against the prison’s alleged denial of medical treatment, according to a statement released by her family to CNN.
The 51-year-old activist was honored with the Nobel Prize on October 6 for her “battle against the suppression of women in Iran and her struggle to advance human rights and liberty for all,” which has resulted in significant personal sacrifices. She has been sentenced to over 30 years in prison and is prohibited from meeting her spouse and children.
According to her family, an Iranian prosecutor refused to grant Mohammadi’s request to be transferred from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where she is being held, to a heart and lung hospital for “urgent medical care.”
US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported that she was denied access to hospital treatment last week after refusing to wear the mandatory hijab.
“It’s been a week now that they are refusing to give her the medical aid she needs,” the activist’s family said in the statement, adding that they were “concerned” about her “physical condition and health.”
Mohammadi was using the hunger strike to demonstrate against Iran’s “policy of delaying and neglecting medical care for sick inmates” and its mandatory hijab policy for Iranian women, the family added.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Monday that it was “deeply concerned” for Mohammadi’s health.
“The requirement that female inmates must wear a hijab in order to be hospitalized is inhumane and morally unacceptable,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the committee, said in a statement. In a letter written from Tehran’s Evin Prison earlier this year and shared with CNN, Mohammadi railed against the government’s policy of compulsory hijab, calling it a “deceitful scheme against women” and a tool “to strengthen the power of the religious government
