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Jailed Iranian Nobel Laureate Mohammadi Goes on Hunger Strike

Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. (Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via Reuters/ File photo)
Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. (Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via Reuters/ File photo)
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Jailed Iranian Nobel Laureate Mohammadi Goes on Hunger Strike

Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. (Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via Reuters/ File photo)
Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) Narges Mohammadi poses in this undated handout picture. (Mohammadi family archive photos/Handout via Reuters/ File photo)

Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi began a hunger strike on Monday in protest against what she said was the jail's failure to give her access to medical care, the activist HRANA news agency reported.

The women's rights advocate won the award on Oct. 6 in a rebuke to Tehran's theocratic leaders, who accused the Nobel committee of meddling and politicizing the issue of human rights.

HRANA said authorities had not let the 51-year-old go to hospital for heart and lung treatment last week because she had refused to wear a mandatory head scarf for the visit. The news agency did not name its sources.

Iran's judiciary did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"Mohammadi has gone on a hunger strike to protest against the authorities' failure to address her demands, including their refusal to transfer her to a specialist hospital," HRANA reported.

"This deprivation continues under the order of the prison authorities," HRANA added.

On Oct. 29 and 30, Mohammadi and a group of women held in Iran's Evin prison protested against the refusal by prison authorities to send Mohammadi to hospital for treatment, according to a statement by Mohammadi's family sent to Reuters.

"She is willing to risk her life by not wearing the 'forced hijab' even for medical treatment," said the Nov. 1 statement, written before Monday's announcement of the Nobel laureate's hunger strike.

Mohammadi has been arrested more than a dozen times in her life and this is her third time in Evin prison since 2012.

She is serving multiple sentences amounting to about 12 years imprisonment on charges including spreading propaganda against the country.

"We are concerned about Narges Mohammadi's physical condition and health," the Free Narges Mohammadi campaign wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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At Least 10 Dead, 32 Injured in a Hotel Fire at a Ski Resort in Northwestern Türkiye

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (IHA via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (IHA via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]
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At Least 10 Dead, 32 Injured in a Hotel Fire at a Ski Resort in Northwestern Türkiye

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (IHA via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a hotel at a ski resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, in northwest Türkiye, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (IHA via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]

A fire at a hotel at a ski resort in northwestern Türkiye on Tuesday killed at least 10 people and hospitalized 32 others, officials said.
The fire broke out at around 3:30 a.m. in the restaurant of the 12-story Grand Kartal hotel in the resort of Kartalkaya in Bolu province, officials and reports said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Two of the victims died after jumping from the building in a panic, Gov. Abdulaziz Aydin told the state-run Anadolu Agency. Private NTV television said some people tried to climb down from their rooms using sheets and blankets, The Associated Press said.
There were 234 guests staying at the hotel, Aydin said.
Necmi Kepcetutan, a ski instructor at the hotel, said he was asleep when the fire erupted and he rushed out of the building. He told NTV television that he then helped some 20 guests out of the hotel.
He said the hotel was engulfed in smoke, making it difficult for guests to locate the fire escape.
“I cannot reach some of my students. I hope they are OK,” the ski instructor told the station.
Television images showed the roof and top floors of the hotel on fire.
The government appointed six prosecutors to lead an investigation into the fire. NTV television suggested that the wooden cladding on the exterior of the hotel, in a chalet-style design, may have accelerated the spread of the fire.
The 161-room hotel is on the side of a cliff, hampering efforts to combat the flames, the station also reported.
Kartalkaya is a popular ski resort in the Koroglu mountains, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Istanbul. The fire occurred during the school semester break when hotels in the region are packed.
Aydin's office said 30 fire trucks and 28 ambulances were sent to the site.
Other hotels at the resort were evacuated as a precaution and guests were placed in hotels around Bolu.