Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi goes on hunger strike as authorities hold him in prison
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi
As things remain volatile in Iran, filmmaker Jafar Panahi, has gone on a hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention. The dissident Iranian filmmaker continues to be held up at Iran’s Evin prison even after the country’s Supreme Court declaredhis sentence void. The director had hoped to be released after the court’s verdict.
The Iranian filmmaker’s wife Tahereh Saeedi and son Panah Panahi published a statement from the director announcing his intention to go on a hunger strikeon their Instagram accounts this week. The statement reads: “I firmly declare that in protest against the illegal and inhumane behavior of the judicial and security apparatus and their hostage-taking, I have started a hunger strike since the morning of the 12th of Bahman (February 1).
“I will refuse to eat and drink any food and medicine until the time of my release. I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is freed from prison.”
“What is certain is that the violent and illegal behavior of the security institution and the reckless surrender of the judiciary once again shows the implementation of selective and tasteful laws. It is only an excuse for repression. I knew that the judicial system and the security institutions have no will to implement the law (which they brag about), but out of respect for my lawyers and friends, I went through all the legal channels to fight for my rights. Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest against these inhumane behaviors with my dearest possession, that is, my life,” he wrote.
Jafar Panahi was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on freedom of expression. He had gone to enquire about filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad at the same prison. The two had been detained only a few days before Jafar went to visit them.
Post this meeting, Jafar learned that the Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a six-year sentence originally meted out to him in 2010 alongside a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban. The authorities revived this inconnection to his attendance atthe funeral of a student shot dead in 2009 in the Green Revolution.
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For the past few months, Iran has been facing a major breakdown of law and order as a woman named Mahsa Amini was killed in police custody. She was arrested on September 16, 2022for not wearinghijab in accordance with the country'sreligion-based law. Since then, thousands of protestors have been arrested.
