Jailed Nobel laureate on hunger strike

Dubai, November 6

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike over the conditions of her imprisonment and the country’s rules, which mandates women to wear headscarves.

Stating this on Monday, organisers of ‘The Free Narges Mohammadi’ campaign said that she “through a message from Evin Prison has informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago.” They said Mohammadi and her lawyer have sought her transfer to a specialist hospital for heart and lung care for weeks now.

Although there were no details about the conditions that Mohammadi is suffering from, the mesage described her as receiving an echocardiogram of her heart.Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge that Mohammadi had gone on a hunger strike.

Mohammadi has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities. She has remained a leading light for nationwide women-led protests, sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody last year. — AP