{"id":88586,"date":"2020-09-01T06:31:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T11:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=88586"},"modified":"2020-09-01T06:31:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T11:31:48","slug":"auto-draft-179","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2020\/09\/01\/auto-draft-179\/","title":{"rendered":"Jailed Iranian Lawyer Declines Injection as Health Worsens on Hunger Strike Day 21, Husband Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – A jailed Iranian lawyer and human rights defender has suffered a significant decline in her health on the 21st day of a hunger strike to protest Iran\u2019s treatment of political prisoners, according to her husband.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Speaking to VOA Persian by phone from Tehran, Reza Khandan said he learned of his wife\u2019s\u00a0worsening health in a phone call that authorities allowed her to make from the city\u2019s Evin prison on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nasrin Sotoudeh, who\u00a0has\u00a0been detained at Evin since June 2018, began her second hunger strike of this year on August 11. In a letter\u202fwritten by\u00a0Sotoudeh and sent to VOA on the same day, she said she\u00a0was demanding the release of political prisoners such as herself from overcrowded and unsanitary Iranian jails infested with the coronavirus.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, she was not in a good condition and we are more concerned about her health now,\u201d\u00a0Khandan said, referring to himself and the couple\u2019s two children.\u00a0\u201cShe said a doctor told her that she needed a serum injection due to low blood pressure, but she was not given a blood pressure reading and she refused to get the injection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khandan said Evin authorities were limiting Sotoudeh\u2019s ability to make phone calls from the women\u2019s prison ward, allowing her to do so only once every two or three days rather than daily.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a Monday Facebook post, Khandan said Iran\u2019s judiciary has an \u201cextraordinary enmity\u201d toward prisoners in the Evin women\u2019s ward, limiting their phone calls to 10 minutes in duration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor\u00a0eight\u00a0months,\u00a0authorities\u00a0have\u00a0suspended\u00a0prisoners\u2019\u00a0face-to-face\u00a0meetings with visiting family members,\u00a0especially children,\u201d\u00a0he wrote.\u00a0\u201cBut they have not added\u00a0a single\u00a0minute to the\u00a0phone\u00a0call\u00a0duration\u00a0for\u00a0the mothers\u00a0among\u00a0Evin\u2019s\u00a0female inmates.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Khandan told VOA that he has been trying to follow\u00a0up with Tehran judicial officials on Sotoudeh\u2019s demands but they have refused to speak with him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we go to\u00a0the\u00a0judiciary or prison\u00a0office, there\u00a0are\u00a0soldiers\u00a0at the\u00a0front\u00a0entrance. They don\u2019t let us\u00a0enter\u00a0and just ask us to write a letter,\u00a0but\u00a0we\u00a0never\u00a0get a response,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

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\"Undated<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jailed Rights Lawyer on Hunger Strike to Protest Keeping Iranian Dissidents in Coronavirus-Infested Prisons<\/div>\n
Nasrin Sotoudeh\u2019s husband told VOA that she started her second hunger strike of the year Tuesday at Tehran\u2019s Evin prison, where she has been detained since June 2018<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

In her August 11 letter, Sotoudeh wrote:\u00a0\u201cThe conditions of political prisoners [in Iran] have become so difficult that it is impossible to continue their detention under these oppressive conditions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran temporarily released tens of thousands of\u00a0inmates\u00a0from its prisons in March as the nation\u2019s coronavirus outbreak intensified but refused to release dissidents sentenced to more than five years in prison for peaceful activities designated as national security offenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh said many such dissidents were now eligible for conditional parole under recent reforms to Iranian law, but authorities were denying them their rights to seek judicial relief.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The prominent lawyer began her first hunger strike of this year\u00a0on March 16 and continued it for several weeks as she made similar demands\u00a0for\u00a0Iranian authorities\u00a0to free jailed dissidents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rights activists have said Sotoudeh\u00a0is serving a sentence\u00a0of more than 30 years\u00a0for alleged national security offenses related to her work.\u00a0Before\u00a0her\u00a02018 arrest, she defended Iranian women detained for removing their compulsory hijabs or headscarves in acts of public\u00a0protest against\u00a0Iran\u2019s ruling clerics.\u00a0Activists have said\u00a0Sotoudeh\u00a0must serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sotoudeh\u2019s latest hunger strike and worsening health have prompted an upsurge of support for her on social media. Thousands of Twitter users have tweeted the hashtag #FREENASRIN in recent days.<\/p>\n