Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – A leading jailed Iranian political activist says the time has come for the Islamic government to leave, even if it takes some reforms such as repealing the deeply divisive mandatory hijab law.
In a letter written from the women’s ward of Evin prison imploring fellow rights activist Farhad Meysami to end his hunger strike, Bahareh Hedayat wrote that “our problem is with the logic of this regime, which is a form of Islamic fascism.”
“The overthrow [of the Islamic republic] is now the will of the majority of the nation and the necessity of the existing situation,” she added.
Last week, Meysami vowed to continue his hunger strike until Iranian authorities release six political prisoners, including Hedayat, and stop their harassment of women through the compulsory hijab rule. Photos on social media showed him in an emaciated condition amid growing fears over his health.
Meysami has been in prison since August 2018 after being sentenced to six years for supporting women protesting against the hijab law, which forces them to cover their hair in public.
He was charged with “spreading propaganda against the system” and “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,” as well as for “insulting Islamic sanctities,” because the authorities said he denigrated the hijab.
In the letter, Hedayat wrote that even if the Islamic republic repeals the compulsory hijab law, “what should we do with its costly conflict with the world?”
“Even if they reached an agreement with the West, what should we do with its organized corruption? What to do with the guardian jurist (supreme leader)? What should we do with its madness, tyranny, inefficiency, and looting?” she added.
In the face of withering criticism from the West over its treatment of protesters and its human rights record in general, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 5 issued an amnesty for “tens of thousands” of prisoners, including protesters arrested during recent anti-government rallies.
Meysami has held several hunger strikes during his incarceration; his demands have been mostly related to social conditions in Iran and the pligth of other activists and prisoners.
Hedayat is a student activist and women’s rights campaigner in Iran who has been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms several times.
Most recently, she was arrested on October 3 during nationwide protests in Iran that broke out following the September 16 death of a young woman while in custody for allegedly violating the country’s head-scarf law.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that, as of January 29, at least 527 people had been killed during the unrest, including 71 minors, as security forces muzzle dissent.
