Iranian film director Jafar Panahi begins hunger strike against his imprisonment

The renowned Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, 62, has begun a hunger strike to denounce his imprisonment since last July, when he was arrested after denouncing the arrest of two other filmmakers in the Persian country.

“I refuse to eat or drink any food and medicine until he is released.

I will remain in this state until perhaps my lifeless body is released from prison, ”Panahi said in a letter posted on social networks by his family in recent hours.

The author of the award-winning

or

described the treatment by Iranian justice and security forces as "illegal and inhumane" and defined his arrest as "kidnapping."

Panahi said that while the country's "innocent youth" are arrested, convicted and executed in less than 30 days, referring to the hangings caused by the protests that have rocked the country in recent months, his case took more than 100 days to complete. be transferred from one court to another.

"Today, like many people who are trapped in Iran, I have no choice but to protest the inhuman behavior with my most precious possession, that is, my life," he said.

Panahi was arrested in July last year for protesting the arrest of filmmakers Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa Ale Ahmad, who had been jailed for criticizing the repression of protests sparked by the collapse of a building in the south of the country that left dozens of dead in 2022.

Panahi's arrest revived a 2010 six-year prison sentence for violating national security, which had been suspended at the time.

That sentence also prohibited the filmmaker from leaving the country, writing scripts and making films until 2030.

Among the numerous and prestigious awards of his international career, Panahi won the Berlin Golden Bear in 2015 with

Previously, in 2008, he won the best screenplay award at Cannes for his film

Eight years earlier, in 2000, with

he had won the Golden Lion in Venice.

His last released work has been

(2022), an applauded plea against the lack of freedoms in Iran and the dissection of a country excessively clinging to traditions, which won the Jury Prize in Venice.

Panahi has started the hunger strike when the protests in Iran are still resounding over the death on September 16 of Masha Amini, after being arrested three days earlier by the morality police for wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly.

The Iranian authorities have responded with strong police repression that has caused almost 500 deaths and nearly 20,000 arrests in the demonstrations.

Four of the detainees have been executed.

Following these executions, the protests have noticeably lost strength.

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