Women's 24-hour global hunger strike campaign in support of Nazanin Zaghari

In a new campaign, the Philia organization called on women around the world to go on a 24-hour hunger strike to demand the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual citizen imprisoned in Iran.

The aim of this campaign to participate in a 24-hour fast or hunger strike is to pressure the British government to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from prison.

The organizers of the campaign say they were inspired by the hunger strike of Richard Ratcliffe, husband of Nazanin Zaghari, who went on a 21-day hunger strike in front of the British Foreign Office to pressure the British government to pay its debt to Iran and pave the way for Ms. Zaghari's release.

The campaign, run by the voluntary organization Philia, which works for women's liberation, has announced that it will gradually publish images of all participants in the 24-hour fast, which began on Monday, December 19, on its website.

As announced by Lisa Marie Taylor, the executive director of the organization, women from India, Iran, Morocco, and the United Kingdom have already registered to participate in this fasting event.

According to him, the organization plans to organize a chain of women for each day of fasting to maintain pressure on the British government.

The 24-hour fast campaign was also inspired by the work of Margaret Owen, an 89-year-old human rights lawyer who went on a hunger strike in solidarity with Richard Ratcliffe.

Margaret Owen, who met Ratcliffe several times during his hunger strike, said: "Every time I sat next to him, I was worried about his health. So I told him I would go on hunger strike for you."

Richard Ratcliffe had previously announced that he would end his hunger strike in front of the British Foreign Office building after three weeks for the sake of their child, Gabriella.

Nazanin Zaghari, a Thomson Reuters Foundation employee, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 at the end of a trip to Iran to visit her family and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “espionage.” A few months ago, despite the dual citizen’s sentence having expired, the Iranian government opened a new case against her, once again sentencing Ms. Zaghari to one year in prison.

Nazanin Zaghari has always denied all the accusations against her, and Richard Ratcliffe has repeatedly described his wife's imprisonment as "hostage-taking" by the Iranian government over the case of Britain's £400 million debt to Iran.

Britain owes Iran this amount for not delivering the Chieftain model tanks, a contract for which was signed more than four decades ago between the Pahlavi regime and the then British government.

Source: Radio Farda