A Kurdish woman jailed in Iran has sewn her lips together at the start of a hunger strike to protest not being allowed leave from jail, a rights group said on Sunday, according to AFP.
Soheila Mohammadi, who has served three years of a five-year term, took the action at her prison in the city of Urmia in northwestern Iran, the Norway-based rights group Hengaw said in a statement.
Mohammadi was arrested in autumn of 2020 and was convicted of membership of the armed group Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which pushes for self-determination for Iran's Kurdish minority and is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in neighboring Turkey.
Hengaw, which focuses on Kurdish issues in Iran, said Mohammadi had not been granted a meeting with the regional prosecutor to ask for the furlough leave.
Mohammadi, a mother of one child, attempted suicide earlier this year by stabbing herself in the chest, according to Hengaw, which said her life was saved by intervention from fellow inmates.
Kurdish-populated areas in west and northwest Iran were among the regions most active during the protest movement that erupted last September against Iran's ruling Islamic authorities.
The protests were sparked by the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after being arrested by the morality police for purportedly breaking the rules.
The government crackdown on the demonstrations resulted in hundreds of people being killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested.
The protests largely died down earlier this year following the crackdown. In July, Iranian authorities announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf. Following the announcement, morality police returned to the streets.
In April, Iranian authorities announced that cameras would be installed in public places and thoroughfares to identify and penalize unveiled women.