Nasrat Beshti on Hunger Strike: My Crime is “Being Cultured”

Nasrat Beshti, an imprisoned teacher in Iran, announced that she has begun a hunger strike from Tuesday, November 4th, in protest of her temporary detention and “unacceptable charges against her.”

Ms. Beshti stated in a declaration: “I have now been held indefinitely for three months in the Information Office and Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad. My only crime is participating in professional gatherings of educators to defend the rights and demand equal pay for teachers with other government employees.”

This retired teacher, who is 60 years old and has six children, described the charges brought against her as “baseless” and said her only crime is “being cultured.”

Nasrat Beshti, noting that charges against her are being added to daily, states, “It appears to be intentional.”

She is one of 14 women who signed a petition letter demanding the resignation of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Fourteen political and civil activists in June 2019 issued a statement addressed to Khamenei calling for his resignation and amending Iran’s constitution. They stated that the current constitution has created “a decorative parliament, a powerless government, and an independent judiciary.” [Note: The original likely meant “non-independent judiciary”]

In mid-August of the same year, 14 women civil rights activists, given the inequalities and problems facing women in Iran, issued a letter calling for a transition beyond the Islamic Republic and the drafting of a new constitution.

The Islamic Republic’s security officials accused the signatories of these letters of attempting to “design a new sedition” and detained many of the signatories of these two letters, with some being temporarily released after a period of time and others remaining in detention.

Source: Voice of America