Jailed Iranian human right activist Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike, a month after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, her family says.
The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee - which awarded Ms Mohammadi the peace prize for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran” - said it was deeply concerned.
The statement from Ms Mohammadi’s family said they were informed in a message from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison that she had started a hunger strike on Monday morning.
Under Iranian law, which is based on the country’s interpretation of Sharia, women must cover their hair with a headscarf and wear long, loose-fitting clothing to disguise their figures.
In September 2022, mass protests erupted across Iran in response to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing an “improper” hijab.
In a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee published last Tuesday, Ms Mohammadi described the compulsory hijab as “a means of control and repression imposed on the society and on which the continuation and survival of [Iran’s] authoritarian religious regime depends”.
The original article contains 526 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!