Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Goes on Hunger Strike

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has gone on hunger strike over Iran's refusal to provide medical care to her and fellow inmates, as well as its mandatory enforcement of the hijab for women.1
  • According to human rights advocates, prison authorities prevented Mohammadi from receiving heart and lung treatment in a hospital last week, because she declined to cover her hair with a headscarf.2
  • The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awarded Mohammadi the Peace Prize for 'her fight against the oppression of women in Iran' last month, said it was 'inhumane and morally unacceptable' to make hospital visits conditional on female inmates wearing a hijab.3
  • Mohammadi's husband claims that his wife — who is serving a 10-year sentence in Iran's Evin prison on charges of 'spreading propaganda against the state' — has refused dry food and is only drinking water with salt or sugar.4
  • Mohammadi has previously advocated for women's rights and the abolition of the death penalty in Iran; she is currently serving a combined 31-year jail term for her campaign for women's rights in Iran.5
  • Her reported hunger strike comes over a year after protests erupted in Iran against the country's mandatory hijab laws, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.6

Sources: 1Associated Press, 2France 24, 3BBC News (a), 4The New York Times, 5Verity Lite and 6BBC News (b).

Narratives

  • Anti-Iran narrative, as provided by VOA. Iran's treatment of women in general and Mohammadi in particular is inhumane and demonstrates the moral failings of the Islamic Republic. Mohammadi, a brave activist who has fought hard for women's rights, is facing death all because she refused to cover her hair. The international community must do more to support Iranian women.
  • Pro-Iran narrative, as provided by PressTV. From the beginning, the West has tried to stir trouble in Iran over its overwhelmingly popular religious policies. These Western-backed activists are nothing but provocateurs sowing the seeds of subversion in a bid to destabilize Iran. Iranian women have a strong Muslim identity, and they won't be swayed by foreign manipulation.

Predictions