Iranian political prisoner Shakila Monfared has started a hunger strike in protest against two new charges, her brother Ashkan Monfared said on July 31.
Monfared, 31, was on medical furlough when officers arrested her a day before her leave was set to end, her brother wrote on X, adding that she was “beaten” during her arrest.
She has been charged with “destruction” and “disturbing public order.”
Monfared, who is currently held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, was first convicted of “insulting sanctities” and “propaganda against the establishment” in 2020 and sentenced to just over four years in prison.
In 2021, while still in prison, she was handed two years and eight months in jail for allegedly being a “member of anti-establishment groups.”
Earlier this year, she was given an additional 15 months in prison after being convicted of having “links to opposition elements.”
Rights groups say the charges are “fabricated” and insist she has only engaged in peaceful dissent against the Islamic republic.
In April 2022, she went on a hunger strike and refused to take her medication after prison authorities refused her request to be taken to a hospital outside the prison.
That same year, she accused the authorities in Qarchak prison of compelling several prisoners to threaten to kill her and went on a days-long hunger strike after her complaints were ignored.
Monfared’s brother said appeals and requests to the judiciary to investigate the new cases that have been brought against his sister “have hit a dead-end.”
U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House has given Iran a low score of 11 out of 100, noting that it is not a free country.
In its most recent annual report, the organization said many “remain in prison for peacefully challenging the clerical establishment and criticizing human rights abuses.”