Status: 02/03/2023 1:37 p.m
Iranian activist Meysami has been imprisoned for more than four years. When the protests began in the autumn, he went on a hunger strike. Now pictures of the completely emaciated man have become public and have caused concern.
Photos of an Iranian activist on hunger strike have sparked widespread concern on social media. Human rights activists have published photos of doctor Farhad Meysami, who has been in prison since 2018. The 53-year-old can be seen with a shaved head and completely emaciated. Iranians were shocked and again called for his release.
The Iranian political scientist Abbas Abdi made an appeal for Meysami on Twitter. Human rights activist Hossein Ronaghi, who was recently imprisoned in Ewin prison and was released on bail, tweeted that Meysami does not deserve jail time. His situation is “painful”. “Responsibility for his life rests with the Islamic Republic”.
Human rights activists published this current picture, which shows Meysami in Ewin prison.
Image: MOHAMMED MOGHIMI via REUTERS
Authorities disagree
Meysami has been in prison for more than four years. The judiciary accuses him of violating “national security”. The well-known activist had already gone on a hunger strike in 2018. Since the latest protests broke out in autumn 2022, the man has again refused to eat in the notorious Ewin prison in the capital Tehran. According to media reports, Meysami is calling for an end to the executions of demonstrators, the release of political prisoners and the end of the strict Islamic dress code.
The Iranian authorities contradicted the reports. Meysami’s weight loss was explained by the judiciary as an intestinal disease, as reported by the Misan news portal. He is said to have interrupted his hunger strike and received medical attention. The information cannot be verified at this time.
Also director Panahi on hunger strike
Meysami is not the only prominent prisoner on hunger strike. On Thursday, famed director Jafar Panahi said in a statement released by his wife that he had “no choice but to protest with my most precious possession – my life.”
Panahi has been fighting for his release for months. In July he was arrested in a court in the capital, Tehran, while attending the hearing of director friend Mohammad Rasoulof, who was already in custody. The judiciary then ruled that Panahi had to serve a six-year prison sentence imposed in 2010 for “propaganda” against the government. The decision had been sharply criticized internationally.
Panahi is one of the best-known Iranian filmmakers. At the Venice Film Festival in 2000 he received the Golden Lion for “The Circle”. In 2015 he won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale with the secretly filmed film “Taxi Tehran”, but was unable to make it to the award ceremony. In 2018 his film “Three Faces” was awarded the prize for best screenplay in Cannes.