Award-winning Iranian director Jafar Panahi, imprisoned in Tehran for six months, says he has gone on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his detention, according to a statement released Thursday by his wife. Jafar Panahi, whose films have won awards at several European film festivals, was arrested in July even before the start of the wave of protest actions that have shaken the Iranian regime since September.
Despite hopes for his release last month, Jafar Pahani remains detained in Evin prison in Tehran. “Today, like many people trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest this inhumane behavior with what I hold most dear: my life,” he said. “I will refuse to eat and drink and take any medicine until I am released,” said the filmmaker, whose hunger strike began on February 1.
“I will remain in this state until, perhaps, my lifeless body is released from prison,” he added. Jafar Pahani, 62, was arrested on July 11 and was forced to serve a six-year prison sentence handed down in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”. But on October 15, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, giving his lawyers hope for release.
Jafar Panahi won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for his film “The Circle”. In 2015 he was awarded a Golden Bear in Berlin for “Taxi Tehran” and in 2018 he won Best Screenplay for “Three Faces” at the Cannes Film Festival. On Twitter, this film institution “reaffirms its full support for him by calling, like many artists, festivals and organizations around the world, for his immediate release”.
“We stand in solidarity with Iranians fighting for their rights, condemn this arrest and call for his release,” the Berlin International Film Festival wrote on Twitter. His arrest in July came after he attended the court hearing of another director, Mohammad Rasoulof, who was arrested a few days earlier. The latter was released from prison on January 7 after being granted a two-week leave for health reasons.
Film personalities are among thousands arrested in Iran in a crackdown on protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd arrested for allegedly breaking a strict dress code for women. Actress Taraneh Alidoosti, who released images of herself not wearing an Islamic veil, was among those detained before being released in early January after nearly three weeks in detention. A sign of the dangers faced by the hunger strikers, human rights activists on Thursday released photos of the emaciated body of activist and doctor Farhad Meysami, sentenced to five years in prison and who refuses to eat.
