Atefeh Nabavi to Prisoners on Hunger Strike: “I Honor Your Stance”

RAHANA

Student activist Atefeh Nabavi is serving a four-year prison sentence in Evin since June 15, 2009. She is currently detained in the general women’s ward.
RAHANA reports that Nabavi wrote a letter to the 17 prisoners who are now entering their eleventh day of hunger strike while their dire physical situation remains a threat to their health. Another women’s ward prisoner Mahdieh Golroo wrote a letter to the prisoners on Tuesday asking them to end their hunger strike.

The following is the English translation of Atefeh Nabavi’s letter:

Living here is like climbing a rock without tools. All you have and all you
can use to continue on the way and pass the obstacles is your body and mind. The
prison guards do not provide you with any tools. When they bang on the prison
door, it means no more dialog and bargaining of rights and duties.
Your duties and rights depend on the prison guard’s level of cruelty. When there
is no other way, you use your only tool to hurt yourself. By creating
a disproportionate cost, you make the prison guard react. This not
only reminds him of his duties, but it also challenges his justice, equity, and
morals.

But he seems to not be in a hurry. You play with the hours of your
life and he plays with his official work hours. He is done with you after
breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then you are left with all the scary moments of
solitude, hunger, and weakness.

The more you charge, the more this game tires you. Your eyes, your stomach, your kidneys all slowly begin to stop cooperating with you. The body disobeys but something still has you going. You reach the end, and with every step you go back, they follow. There is a point that you have to take a strong stance. The goal of the prison guards is to force you to break your stance with threats and promises.
But my dear friends, who is able to tell you what to do, whether to break your strike or to continue? By weakening your life you make the prison guards happy. If you break your strike, will you reach your demands?
I know that when you began your action, you knew that any protest in this country will have disproportionate costs. I honor your stance and your weakened
existence, and I wish that you get what you deserve in this unfair battle.

Atefeh Nabavi,

General Women’s Ward Section, Evin Prison