2023-12-09 16:32:00
On Sunday, the day she received her Nobel Peace Prize, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi will observe a new hunger strike, her family announced on Saturday, December 9. Currently imprisoned in her country, she will be represented at the ceremony by her children. Narges Mohammadi, who campaigns in particular against the compulsory wearing of the hijab and the death penalty in Iran, will go on a hunger strike “in solidarity with the Bahai religious minority”, indicated her brother and her husband during a conference of press in the Norwegian capital on the eve of the Nobel ceremony.
“She is not here with us today, she is in prison and she will be on hunger strike in solidarity with a religious minority,” her younger brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, said in a brief opening statement. The husband of the 51-year-old activist, Taghi Rahmani, then clarified that this gesture of solidarity was aimed at the Bahai minority, two of whose leading figures are also observing a hunger strike. “She said, ‘I’m going to start my hunger strike the day I get the award and maybe the world will hear more about it,'” he explained at the press conference.
READ ALSO Nobel Peace Prize: Narges Mohammadi “burst with joy […] in his cell » The largest religious minority in Iran, the Bahai community is the target of discrimination in many sectors of society, its representatives believe. Detained since 2021 in Tehran’s Evin prison and in fragile health, Narges Mohammadi had already observed a hunger strike for a few days in early November to obtain the right to be transferred to hospital without covering her head.
Face of the “Woman, Life, Liberty” uprising
Awarded the Nobel Prize in October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all”, she has been arrested and convicted many times in recent decades. She is one of the main faces of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising in Iran.
READ ALSO Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize 2023: “The fight against compulsory veiling is not just a women’s affair” The movement, which saw women remove the veil, cut their hair and demonstrate in the streets, was sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest in Tehran for non-compliance with the strict Islamic dress code. The protest was severely repressed.
#Iranian #activist #Narges #Mohammadi #hunger #strike