Media: Iranian human rights activist goes on a hunger strike in jail

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi began a hunger strike Monday over being blocked along with other inmates from getting medical care and to protest the country’s mandatory headscarves for women, a campaign advocating for the activist said.

Report informs via AP that the decision by Mohammadi, 51, increases pressure on Iran’s theocracy over her incarceration, a month after being awarded the Nobel for her years of activism despite a decadeslong campaign by the government targeting her.

Meanwhile, another incarcerated activist, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, reportedly needs medical care she has yet to receive. She was arrested while attending a funeral for a teenage girl who died under disputed circumstances in Tehran’s Metro while not wearing a hijab.

The Free Narges Mohammadi campaign, citing a statement from her family abroad, said she sent a message from Evin Prison on Monday and “informed her family that she started a hunger strike several hours ago.” It said Mohammadi and her lawyer for weeks have sought her transfer to a specialist hospital for heart and lung care.