Transfer of Bahareh Hedayat to Prison; Request from Mahsa Amini's Mother and 21 Political Prisoners to End Hunger Strike

On the thirteenth day of Bahareh Hedayat's hunger strike, the political prisoner held in Evin Prison was transferred to a hospital, where doctors urged her to end her strike. Simultaneously, Mahsa Amini's mother and 21 political prisoners also requested Bahareh Hedayat to break her hunger strike. Zahra Minewi, Bahareh Hedayat's lawyer, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, September 21: 'My client Bahareh Hedayat, who was transferred from Evin Prison to Taleghani Hospital today, was returned to prison a short while ago, but despite the recommendations and insistence of the doctors at this hospital, she has refused to receive IV fluids and to end her hunger strike.' Mojgan Eftekhari, Mahsa Amini's mother, also urged Bahareh Hedayat to end her hunger strike in an Instagram story on Tuesday evening. Ms. Eftekhari wrote to Ms. Hedayat: 'I urgently request you to end your hunger strike because the people of Iran need your life and health.' At the same time, 21 political prisoners and Hedayat's fellow inmates wrote a letter to her: 'Dear Bahareh, we ask you to end your hunger strike, so that together we can give new life to our collective dream.' In their letter, these political prisoners stated: 'We live in a time where the truth is distorted, and the values that organize politics have collapsed. In these circumstances, for someone who has spent a lifetime striving for freedom for all and for Iran, there may be no choice left but to risk their own life to warn that what is being plundered is the life of a human being and the existence and future of a land.' This letter was signed by Nahid Taghavi, Niloufar Bayani, Niloufar Hamedi, Narges Mohammadi, and Vida Rabbani, among others. They concluded their message to Bahareh Hedayat by stating: 'We, a group of your fellow inmates, declare that we can no longer tolerate the jeopardy of your life and health, and relying on the call of the late Javad Rouhi's parents, we request you to end your hunger strike for the protection of your breath and your being, as a concerned conscience struggling for freedom, so that together we can give new life to our collective dream.' Previously, the family of Javad Rouhi, a deceased protester in prison, and a number of student activists had expressed concern about Bahareh Hedayat's health and called for the end of her hunger strike. Bahareh Hedayat has been on hunger strike since Friday, September 9, in protest against issues including the 'intensified repression' of protesters by the Islamic Republic government and the death of Javad Rouhi, a prisoner protester. She recently described her hunger strike in a letter as a renewed pledge with the 'public conscience of Iranians for freedom' and the 'Mahsa uprising.'