DUBAI: Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Moham­madi began a hunger strike on Monday in protest against what she said was the jail’s failure to give her access to medical care, the activist HRANA news agency reported.

The women’s rights advocate won the award on Oct 6 in a rebuke to Tehran’s theocratic leaders, who accused the Nobel committee of meddling and politicizing the issue of human rights.

HRANA said authorities had not let the 51-year-old go to hospital for heart and lung treatment last week because she had refused to wear a mandatory head scarf for the visit. Iran’s judiciary did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“Mohammadi has gone on a hunger strike to protest against the authorities’ failure to address her demands, including their refusal to transfer her to a specialist hospital, HRANA reported. “This deprivation continues under the order of the prison authorities,” it added.

On Oct 29 and 30, Narges Mohammadi and a group of women held in Iran’s Evin prison protested against the refusal by prison authorities to send her to hospital for treatment, according to a statement by Narges’ family sent to Reuters.

“She is willing to risk her life by not wearing the ‘forced hijab’ even for medical treatment,” said the Nov 1 statement, written before Monday’s annou­ncement of the Nobel laureate’s hunger strike.

She is serving multiple sentences amounting to about 12 years’ imprisonment on charges including spreading propaganda against Iran.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023