Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Life is in Grave Danger!

Nasrin Sotoudeh’s Life is in Grave Danger!
The life of this courageous lawyer must be saved by meeting her just demands
Nasrin Sotoudeh, lawyer, human rights defender and one of Iran’s prominent activists fighting against forcible veiling of women in Iran has been in prison since June 2018 in retaliation against her continued defense of the rights of women and political prisoners. She has been sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes! Since August 11, Sotoudeh has been on hunger strike to protest inhumane treatment of political prisoners amid the ravaging effects of COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing execution of the political prisoners on death row.
The demands of this courageous lawyer for which she has been on hunger strike for more than 40 days are just and should be agreed to by the Islamic Republic. If these demands are not met urgently, it only means that more innocent lives of political prisoners are imperiled.
As Nasrin Sotoudeh has highlighted in her demands, many of the prisoners are entitled to furlough, release and shortened prison terms due to already having served a considerable number of years of their prison sentence. Furthermore, according to the provisions of a newly established law, they must be released at once. Since the spread of COVID-19, Iran’s political prisoners have organized sit-ins, and some have gone on hunger strike. The fact is that the Islamic Republic has furloughed or released common criminals, such as embezzlers, amid the pandemic. Yet in a dark contrast, and as witnessed by the execution of the wrestling athlete, Navid Afkari, the Islamic Republic has been violent and harsh in treating political prisoners. During a deadly pandemic, they continue to endanger the lives of political prisoners in a flagrant way by keeping them incarcerated under unsafe prison conditions. The goal of Nasrin Sotoudeh’s hunger strike, as joined by the protest and hunger strike of others in prison, is to save the lives of political prisoners.
Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh’s husband, reported that on the 40th day of her strike on September 19, health conditions of Sotoudeh deteriorated and she was taken to the ICU unit of Talaghani hospital in Tehran. Yet even in the hospital, security agents created the most inhumane environment and levelled increased psychological pressure on Sotoudeh to force her to give up her hunger strike. One of the most vicious security agents was put in charge of isolating Sotoudeh in the hospital, and her family were kept completely uninformed about the medical care or procedure provided to her. Under orders and pressure of the security forces, the hospital administrators did not observe the required patient care protocols for Sotoudeh. Over 5 days that Sotoudeh was hospitalized, she was kept in a public treatment unit under constant watch of the security agents – a public unit that included all types of patients with different illnesses! Her husband was banned from visiting her and could only occasionally hear Sotoudeh’s outcry of protest from behind the closed doors. Nasrin has since been returned to the prison. While she has ended her hunger strike after 46 days, her deteriorated health is extremely concerning.
The only way to resolve this inhumane situation is to urgently hold the Islamic Republic leaders accountable for endangering the lives of political prisoners by keeping them in prison.
We call on all women politicians, human rights defenders, and activists for women’s freedom to become alarmed by this grave situation. We urge them to use all means available to them to call on the Islamic Republic authorities to meet Nasrin’s just demands. The first act is to release the ailing political prisoners including Nasrin Sotoudeh.
We must act now before it becomes too late.