Iranian Woman Prisoner Sews Lips in Prison, Launches Hunger Strike

A Kurdish woman incarcerated in north-western Iran has sewn her lips together at the start of a hunger strike to protest being denied leave from prison, a rights group has said.

Soheila Mohammadi took the action in Urmia Central Prison because she was not granted a meeting with the regional prosecutor to ask for the furlough leave, the Norway-based Hengaw group, which monitors rights violations in Iran's Kurdish regions, reported on August 6.

Mohammadi, who has served three years of a five year term, attempted suicide earlier this year by stabbing herself in the chest, Hengaw said, adding that her life was saved by intervention from fellow inmates.

A mother of one child, she was arrested in 2020 and convicted of membership of the armed group Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which pushes for self-determination for Iran's Kurdish minority.