Iranian human rights activist Farhad Meysami has been refusing food in prison since autumn 2022 - and is calling for an end to the executions of demonstrators, among other things. New pictures of the doctor cause horror on social media. Many supporters are calling for his release.
Images of an Iranian activist on hunger strike have sparked widespread concern on social media. Human rights activists published photos of doctor Farhad Meysami, who has been in prison since 2018, on Thursday evening. The well-known 53-year-old can be seen with a shaved head and completely emaciated. Iranians were shocked and again called for his release.
Meysami has been in prison for more than four years. The judiciary accuses him of violating "national security". The well-known activist had already gone on a hunger strike in 2018. Since the latest protests broke out in autumn 2022, the man has again refused to eat in the notorious Ewin prison in the capital Tehran. According to media reports, Meysami is calling for an end to the executions of demonstrators, the release of political prisoners and the end of the strict Islamic dress code.
Prominent politicians and intellectuals are calling for Meysami's release. The Iranian political scientist Abbas Abdi made an appeal for this on Twitter. The human rights activist Hossein Ronaghi, who was most recently imprisoned in Ewin prison and was released on bail, wrote that Meysami did not deserve a prison sentence. His situation was "painful," Ronaghi wrote on Twitter. "Responsibility for his life rests with the Islamic Republic".
The latest wave of protests in Iran was triggered by the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September. She had been arrested by the so-called vice police for violating Islamic dress codes.
Street protests have abated in recent weeks. Many women now express their displeasure through civil disobedience, for example by ignoring the compulsory headscarf. Demonstrators, for example, shove the turbans off mullahs, fill public fountains with fake blood or daub posters of influential statesmen with red paint.
