Iranian political prisoner starts hunger strike due to denial of medical care

Farzaneh Qarahassanlou, imprisoned for participating in Iran's 2022 protests, started a hunger strike on Sunday to protest the denial of urgent medical care.

News Center- Farzaneh Qarahassanlou, imprisoned for participating in the nationwide protests that sparked across Iran following the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini in the custody by Iran’s so-called “morality police” on September 16, 2022, started a hunger strike on Sunday, June 9, to protest the denial of urgent medical care and the conditions at Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad.

According to the received reports, Farzaneh Qarahassanlou has been suffering from total loss of sensation in the left part of her body; however, she is receiving inadequate medical care despite her requests to consult a physician.

On November 4, 2022, Iranian security forces stormed the home of Farzaneh Qarahassanlou, a lab technician, forcibly arrested her and her husband, Hamid Qarahassanlou, a radiologist, after they had participated in the 40th day commemoration of the murder of Hadis Najafi, a young woman who was shot dead by Iranian security forces on September 21, 2022 during a protest in Mehrshahr, Karaj.

In December 2022, Farzaneh Gharehassanlou was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of “spreading corruption on earth through committing crimes against national security.”