The Kaleme opposition website reports that nine female prisoners at Iran’s Evin Prison have begun a hunger strike to protest a raid of their ward by security guards.
The report indicates that on Tuesday, 20 female guards at Evin Prison raided the women’s section of Evin Prison, subjecting the prisoners to body searches and going through their belongings.
According to the report on Kaleme, the prisoners were “insulted” and treated harshly.
The report indicates that Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, is acting as the prisoners’ representative and has denounced this action.
Faezeh Hashemi is serving a six-month prison sentence for the charge of “insulting the officials of the country.”
Kaleme reports that the prisoners were first body searched and then locked out in the yard while their belongings were searched. The prisoners reportedly chanted protest slogans in the yard.
The report adds that nine of the prisoners have gone on to refuse food in protest of their harsh treatment: Bahareh Hedayat, Nazanin Deyhimi, Jila Bani Yaghoub, Shiva Nazar Ahari, Mahsa Amrabadi, Hakimeh Shokri, Jila Karamzadeh, Nasim Solktan Beigi and Rahelh Zohayi.
Meanwhile, Nasrin Sotoudeh, the jailed Iranian lawyer, continues her two-week-old hunger strike at Evin Prison, and reports indicate that she has been taken to the infirmary on several occasions.
