Five Female Prisoners at the Orumiyeh Central Prison have been on hunger strike since Wednesday, October 11 in protest to the confiscation of their personal belongings by prison authorities.
“On Wednesday, October 11, a number of prison guards searched the Women ward of Orumiyeh Central Prison under the pretext of inspecting the prison. During this inspection, the prison guards seized a number of the prisoners’ personal belongings, including personal blankets of several female prisoners while claiming that the seized belongings were extra. The Seize of the private blanket of the detainees was met with massive protests by female prisoners as the weather is slowly getting cold. In protest to this action, five prisoners, who have spent many years at this ward, including Arasteh Ranjbar, Mohabat Mahmoodi, Zainab Sakanand, Nazdar Vatankhah and Nosrat Ali Nejad went on hunger strikes. This strike has continued so far.”, one of the female prisoners in this ward told Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN).
“A number of prisoners earn their living expences in prison through handicrafts such as embroidery and … but the prison authorities, instead of encouraging them, have seized all the tools of doing so.”, this prisoner also mentioned.
“The prison authorities have stated that the detainees themselves are responsible for cleaning the toilets from now on and obliged them to do so,” the prisoner added.
“All the five prisoners have stated that they would continue their hunger strikes until their demands for the return of their personal belongings including handicrafts and personal blankets, are met.” the source added.
Nosrat Ali Nejad has been charged with narcotics-related crimes while the remaining four other prisoners are serving their prison sentence for murder.
