Vodood Asadi's blood pressure dropped so suddenly on Monday night that guards at Iran's notorious Evin Prison had no choice but to administer an intravenous drip.
It was the 35th day of his hunger strike.
The Iranian political prisoner, incarcerated in a prison synonymous with the Islamic Republic's treatment of dissidents, had lost more than 10 kilograms.
His teenage son, already facing a third surgery since his father's arrest, was preparing to go under the knife again. This time, Asadi would not be there.
"My child Taymaz, I wish you to be a person worthy of the meaning of your name," Asadi told his son in an audio message from prison. "It's true that I'm not with you, but your mother is there, and you are surrounded by people who love you."
The message, published on social media, offered a glimpse into a hunger strike that has now stretched past 40 days for two prisoners whose demands are starkly simple - access to medical treatment and the legal rights granted to inmates under Iranian law. Their request has instead been met with solitary confinement and bureaucratic indifference.
Taher Naghavi, an imprisoned lawyer who once represented political prisoners and families seeking justice, began his hunger strike on October 27 after prison authorities rejected his request for medical furlough.
Naghavi suffers from high blood pressure, fractured lumbar vertebrae, hemorrhoids, and masses in his prostate and bladder.
The hunger strike has compounded his medical issues: severe weakness, dangerously low blood pressure, and plummeting blood sugar levels.
One day after Naghavi began his protest, Asadi and four other Azeri political prisoners joined him.
Prison officials quickly moved to break the strike, transferring the group to solitary confinement in Ward 240, a wing overseen by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.
Under pressure, most gave up. Naghavi and Asadi did not.
Sources who spoke with IranWire said both men have made their position clear. They will continue until their demands are met or until death.
"Both Mr. Naghavi and Mr. Asadi have clearly said in letters sent from prison that they will not stop their strike until death and until all their demands are met," said one source.
"Therefore, the fact that prison authorities have not taken any effective action so far demonstrates one thing: the life of a political prisoner is not important to the Prisons Organization and the judiciary."
The hunger strike is the latest development in a case that human rights advocates say exemplifies the Islamic Republic's discriminatory treatment of ethnic minorities and political dissidents.
The prisoners at the centre of the protest were arrested in 2023 during a sweep of Azeri activists across several cities, including East Azerbaijan, Karaj, and Rasht.
Most of the detainees had never met before their arrest, according to sources. But they shared a common fate: despite Iranian law requiring defendants to be tried in the place where their alleged crimes occurred, all were transferred to Tehran and tried in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by the hard-line Judge Abolghasem Salvati.
The court handed down heavy sentences.
And according to sources and reports, several prisoners have since been denied proper medical treatment and furlough despite documented health concerns - a systematic pattern that sparked Naghavi's initial protest.
"In these 37–38 days, they were sent to the hospital only once," a source told IranWire. "The doctor ordered an MRI and ultrasound for Mr. Naghavi, but they returned them to prison without carrying out the procedures."
Officials have held several rounds of talks with the strikers, the source added, but the discussions have resulted only in empty promises.
"They are merely trying to break the strike with empty words and vague reassurances such as 'we'll look into it' or 'we'll talk to the security officer,'" the source said.
In November, the families of Asadi and Naghavi held a week-long sit-in outside Evin Prison. Under pressure, authorities moved the men out of solitary confinement and back to Ward 8, where they rejoined the general population.
Three other prisoners, Abdolaziz Azimi Qadim, Ayaz Seifkhah, and Mahmoud Ojaghloo, resumed the hunger strike.
For Naghavi, the strike poses medical risks. Before his arrest, he spent years representing many political prisoners and justice-seeking families, building a career on defending those targeted by the Islamic Republic.
Now he is experiencing the same systemic denials he once challenged in court.
In a message shared online, Asadi wrote, "May our death be a wake-up call for the freedom of our nation."
The legal context is also fraught. Musa Barzin, a jurist and legal adviser to IranWire, said executive regulations require hunger strikers to be isolated from other inmates.
While the rules do not explicitly require officials to preserve hunger strikers' lives, other articles guarantee access to medical care.
"In any case, the Prisons Organization cannot forcibly feed a hunger striker," Barzin said. "But if consciousness reaches a critical level, they must administer IV fluids. And since the illness stems from the strike, the organization is obligated to provide treatment, either in prison or outside."
Several international human rights groups, including U.N. special rapporteurs, the International Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, have urged Iran's judiciary to ensure proper medical care for the prisoners.
Rights organizations say the denial of medical treatment to political detainees is part of a systematic strategy of repression within Iran's prisons.
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