Kurdish activist Warisha Moradi, who is in Tehran's Evin prison, has gone on an indefinite hunger strike in protest against her prison conditions. In a message from Evin prison, the political prisoner informed the public that she would go on hunger strike, said the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN). Moradi is protesting not only for better prison conditions, but also against the death penalty in Iran.

The date for the action was not chosen by chance by Moradi: 10 October, in fact, is European day and also International Day against the Death Penalty. This is not Moradi's first hunger strike. The Kurdish woman has been taking part in a weekly protest with other political prisoners for months and goes on hunger strike every Tuesday. The "Black Tuesdays" campaign, launched in January in Qezelhesar prison in Karaj, calling for the abolition of the death penalty, has spread nationwide and is being carried out in more than twenty prisons.

Moradi, also known as Ciwana Sine, was arrested on 1 August 2023 during a police check near her hometown of Sine (Sanandaj) and taken to an unknown location. Iran's regime judiciary accuses her of "enmity towards God" and "armed rebellion against the state". The allegations are related to Moradi's membership in the KJAR, the umbrella organization of the Kurdish women's movement in Iran, and her commitment to women's and feminist issues. Tehran sees the KJAR as a "separatist terrorist organization" because it is said to be part of the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK).

Brutally tortured, mistreated and interrogated

After Moradi's abduction, her whereabouts were unclear for months. It was only thanks to the KHRN that it became known that the activist had been brutally tortured, mistreated and interrogated by the Iranian Secret Service in Sine for weeks after her arrest, until she was transferred to Tehran at the end of August. There she was held for months in the notorious high-security wing 209 of Evin prison - also subjected to torture and mistreatment, with the aim of breaking her or forcing her to confess. Moradi has been in the women's section of the prison since the beginning of January. She is denied access to legal counsel most of the time. If she is convicted, she faces the death penalty.