Narges Mohammadi, the recipient of the 2023 Nobel peace prize for her long fight against the oppression of women in Iran, is reported to have started a hunger strike. Her family told CNN this week that she began refusing food on Monday in protest over what she said was the jail’s refusal to provide her with medical treatment.
Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences in Iran’s infamous Evin prison on charges that include spreading propaganda against the state. Her rights campaigns were characterised by the Nobel prize committee as a “brave struggle [that] has come with tremendous personal costs”.
While in jail, Mohammadi has made several statements in support of the “women, life, freedom” protest movement that erupted in 2022 following the death in the custody of Iran’s morality police of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini. Ahmini was detained for allegedly wearing the compulsory hijab in an improper manner.
