Saturday, August 14, 2010

Iranian Prisoners Explain End of Hunger Strikes


August 10, 2010, 6:48 pm

Iranian Prisoners Explain End of Hunger Strikes


By ROBERT MACKEY

Fifteen opposition activists in Tehran’s Evin prison explained why they ended their hunger strikes on Monday in a letter published on the Web site of the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi.

The blog Enduring America posted a complete translation of the letter, in which the opposition activists explained that they had ceased their protest in response to calls from leading members of Iran’s Green movement:

We will continue to insist on our human rights and the basic rights of all prisoners. We pledge to continue to fight until all prisoners who are part of our beloved nation gain access to their full legal rights.

In honor of our great fellow Green, Mir Hussein Moussavi, and the other figures in the movement such as Mehdi Karroubi, Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani, Zahra Rahavard, Abdollah Nouri, Ezatallah Sahabi, Ahmad Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi, Habiballah Peyman, Ebrahmin Yazdi, and others, including every single fellow Green, we will put an end to our 16-day hunger strike.

We are hopeful that the Tehran prosecutor and other officials at the judiciary keep their promise of meeting our five demands. We accept the release of Babak Bordbar as a sign of the Tehran prosecutor’s determination to implement our four other legal and legitimate demands. It is our sincere hope that, as indicated by the representatives at the prosecutor’s office, in addition to legal ramifications for those prison officials who have abused and insulted the prisoners, that the prisoners’ rights as described in the prison regulations are adhered to and implemented as soon as possible.

We are forever grateful to the leaders of the Green movement, the political parties, media outlets, political and civil activists, students, journalists, and all those inside and outside the country who have been the voice to the outside world for us and our struggling families.


Aug. 9, 2010

Evin Prison Ward 240

Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike

An Iranian human rights group reported that another prisoner has pledged not to eat solid food “until the other 15 political prisoners are transferred from solitary confinement to the general ward at Evin.”

As my colleague Rogene Fisher reported, the activists include the young student leader Majid Tavakoli, who was arrested last December and mocked by Iran’s state media, which showed photos of him dressed as a woman. On Monday, the Iranian-American opposition blogger Mehdi Saharkhiz reported on Twitter that Mr. Tavakoli had “fainted from the hunger strike” and was “unconscious for hours.”

Last week, Frieda Afary explained on the Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau that another group of political prisoners, including Issa Saharkhiz, the blogger’s father, wrote an open letter urging the strikers to end their fasts, “the democracy-seeking Green movement needs capable forces and prolific youth like you to build a free Iran.”

Ms. Afary also translated part of a similar appeal to the strikers from a female prisoner in Evin’s women’s section, Mahdiyeh Golroo. In her letter, Ms. Golroo wrote:

My only hope is for you to remain healthy. My only wish is that you respect our only right by choice, that is to remain alive. Remain alive and see the bright days that are ahead and are impatiently awaiting the results of our efforts….

To live is to do miracles/ Otherwise birth is nothing but the memory of a fruitless pain/ Let us not simply cover our noses/ This harmful stench is not the world/ It is an infection, an injustice.

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