Nazanin Zaghari and Narges Mohammadi to Go on Hunger Strike

Narges Mohammadi and Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, political prisoners, have announced in a joint letter that they will go on a three-day hunger strike in protest against the handling of their medical conditions in prison. According to the Human Rights Defenders Center, they stated in the letter: "Access to a treating physician, medication, and treatment is among the rights enshrined in international and domestic declarations and regulations, which unfortunately we have been deprived of for a long time despite our repeated requests and visits to the relevant authorities." The two political prisoners said that a trusted physician from the prison organization had issued a written report stating that they should be treated urgently in medical centers, but prison officials have prevented this for unknown reasons. Mohammadi and Zaghari Ratcliffe expressed that "not only are medical transfers and emergency care not being carried out, but our continuous follow-ups from inside the prison, even the possibility of meeting with the honorable prosecutor for prisoners and the relentless follow-ups of our lawyers outside the prison have not reached a conclusion, which is a matter of serious concern, protest, and doubt for us." They stated that in protest against this "illegal, inhumane, and un-Islamic method, and to express our concern for our health and lives despite using daily medications," they will go on a hunger strike for three days. Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 while traveling to Iran with her young daughter and was accused of "attempting to overthrow" the Iranian government, charges that she and her lawyer have repeatedly denied. Last month, Zaghari's lawyer stated: "Given my client's illness, we have requested her transfer to a hospital for medical care, and we are currently waiting for the prison's approval for her transfer to the hospital." Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist sentenced to 16 years in prison, suffers from pulmonary embolism and muscular paralysis and has been hospitalized multiple times before.