Iranian Women Prisoners Urge Activist Hedayat to End Hunger Strike

A group of women activists and journalists incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison have written an open letter urging political prisoner and civil activist Bahareh Hedayat to end her hunger strike. 

"As fellow prisoners, we declare that we can no longer endure the serious threat to your life and health," reads the letter, which was sent to IranWire. 

The authors of the text, who include activists Sepideh Qolyian, Narges Mohammadi and Golrokh Iraei, as well as journalists Elahe Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi, said that Hedayat should not put her life at risk in order to be able to continue her “unwavering struggle for freedom.”

Hedayat is a well-known human rights activist in Iran who has been arrested and imprisoned several times for her activism. 

She is currently serving a four-year and eight-month sentence in Evin prison for participating in protests after the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down a Ukrainian airliner in January 2020.

She was moved to hospital on September 13 after launching a hunger strike on August 31 to protest the death of Javad Rouhi, a man who was detained during the recent nationwide protests and died under suspicious circumstances while in prison.

Rouhi’s family has urged Hedayat to end her protest action, but she has refused.