Farhad Meysami, an Iranian physician, publisher, and civil rights activist, has reportedly lost 53 kg (117 lbs) since going on hunger strike on October 7, 2022, at Rajaee-Shahr Prison in Karaj to demand an end to executions of protesters, the release of political prisoners, and an end to mandatory hijab laws.
Meysami, 53, was arrested in his office in July 2018 and taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for campaigning against compulsory hijab. He was accused of possessing pins stating: “I am against the compulsory hijab” and sentenced to six years in prison.
He was charged with “collusion and conspiracy to threaten national security,” “disseminating propaganda against the establishment,” and “insulting the hijab, an essential sacrament of Islam.”
He began his hunger strike by consuming only liquids, but since December 19, he has been on a dry hunger strike. In a picture from prison, Meysami holds three books, sending a message through their titles: “The power of the powerless against tyranny is the narrow path towards freedom.”
In a recent letter from inside prison, titled "For the days of suffering and suffering and suffering,” he wrote:
“At a time when the rulers have denied the people their rights to a healthy body, livelihood, and dignity, leaving nothing but daily pain and suffering, I have begun my own small contribution, hoping to turn these poisonous times into an antidote with a collective effort.”
“I will still stand by my three demands: stopping the executions of protesters, releasing political-civil prisoners, and stopping forced-hijab harassment, and I will continue my impossible mission in the hope that it may become possible later on with a collective effort.”
Determined to continue his work as a scholar and activist, Meysami translated Michael Nagler's “The Nonviolence Handbook” into Persian and signed the first page from Rajai Shahr prison in the Fall of 2022. He dedicated the book to “all civil activists who have suffered immensely to form trade unions and civil organizations.”
This is not the first time Meysami has gone on a hunger strike in prison to protest social conditions in Iran and advocate for other political prisoners.
In 2018, Meysami went on a hunger strike to protest the charges against him. In May 2022, he went on a hunger strike to protest the threat of execution of Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish university professor who has been detained in Iran since 2016.
“I don’t want to just oppose Dr. Djalali’s execution. I want to draw attention to something much more important, to draw attention to the fact that they send a man to his death many times and bring him back. Regular and intentional torture like this is definitely a crime against humanity,” Meysami wrote last year.