Hunger Strike of Four Gonabadi Dervishes in Evin Prison

Four Gonabadi dervishes who were arrested while visiting one of the managers of the 'Majzooban Noor' website at the Day Hospital have gone on hunger strike. The Majzooban Noor website, which publishes news related to Gonabadi dervishes, announced that the detainees are Kasra Noori, Mohammad Sharifi-Moghadam, Mohammad Reza Darvishi, and Faezah Abdi-Pour. According to the report, they had gone to the Day Hospital to visit Hamid Reza Moradi, one of the managers of this website, when 'security agents violently' arrested them. The report indicates that the arrest of these Gonabadi dervishes occurred 'in the late hours of the night... on the ground floor and in the courtyard of the Day Hospital, accompanied by gunfire and the use of tasers and violence.' As stated by the Majzooban Noor website, these four individuals 'announced their hunger strike at the very beginning of their arrest' and were transferred to 'Ward 209 of the Ministry of Intelligence detention center in Evin.' The website also reported that Zafar Maqimi, another Gonabadi dervish who was arrested with the four mentioned, has been released. Kasra Noori is a manager of the Majzooban Noor website and a human rights student at Tehran University, while the other three are also student activists. The Majzooban Noor website has stated that it is unaware of the reasons for their arrest. In recent years, especially after the protests following the 2009 presidential election, alongside hundreds of political, student, civil, women's rights activists, journalists, lawyers, Baha'is, and Christian converts, Gonabadi dervishes have also been arrested and imprisoned. Several Gonabadi dervishes who were arrested in previous years are still in prison, and some of them have gone on hunger strikes in the past. For instance, in September 2014, nine imprisoned dervishes in Evin and Shiraz prisons went on hunger strike for 34 days. Some Gonabadi dervishes have gathered three times in front of the Tehran judiciary in support of these prisoners, and these gatherings were violently suppressed by security and law enforcement forces, resulting in the arrest of several demonstrators. Ali Younesi, the special assistant to the Iranian president for ethnic and minority affairs, has described the treatment of dervishes in the country as 'unfortunate' and 'arbitrary' and stated that these actions are against the 'interests and laws of the Islamic Republic.' In June of this year, a number of students and Gonabadi dervishes issued an open letter protesting the expulsion of Mustafa Daneshju, who was studying criminal law and criminology at Azad University in Tehran, citing the prevention of education and teaching for several dervishes in recent months.