Activist Ends Hunger Strike after Judge Agrees to Transfer to Evin’s Political Ward

Atena Faraghdani has ended her hunger strike in hospital, where she has been since her February 26 collapse in Gharchak Prison, after learning that a Revolutionary Court Judge agreed to return her to Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward for political prisoners, her lawyer told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Mohammad Moghimi, Faraghdani’s lawyer, told the Campaign that his client had embarked on the hunger strike to protest her transfer to the deplorable Gharchak Prison, where political prisoners are not separated from hardened criminals, in violation of the principle of the separation of prisoners.

“The specialists have ordered Ms. Faraghdani to remain in hospital until her condition improves. After all, she was on a hunger strike for almost 20 days. She will be transferred to Evin Prison on judicial orders afterwards,” Moghimi told the Campaign. Despite her transfer to hospital on February 26, Faraghdani continued her hunger strike by refusing intravenous therapy for six days.

Security agents arrested the painter and civil activist Atena Faraghdani on August 24, 2014, and transferred her to IRGC’s Ward 2-A inside Evin Prison. She was released on bail on November 2, 2014. She published a video of herself, in which she spoke about an incident of aggressive strip search by female prison guards inside a solitary cell at Evin Prison. She said in the video that she had been ordered to take off her clothes, which she had refused. The video was widely viewed and discussed on social networks. [Link to Farsi blog on Atena Faraghdani’s situation]

After the video was published, she was summoned to Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court on January 10, 2015, arrested, and transferred to Gharchak Prison in Varamin, outside Tehran.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran