Gonabadi Dervishes across Iran, in separate letters by expressing gratitude for their sacrifices and acts of heroism, urge Saleh Moradi and Kasra Nouri, two jailed Gonabadi Dervishes in Shiraz’s Adel Abad prison to end their hunger strike.
According to the Majzooban Noor website, a large number of Gonabadi Dervishes across cities in Iran, by sending letters to Majzooban Noor website (Nematollahi Gonabadi Order News Website) expressed grave concern about their health condition and asked Saleh Moradi and Kasra Nouri to end their hunger strike. In the letter Dervishes recognize their sacrifices and commend their persistence and by considering that they should stay healthy and safe to continue the resistance against oppression and injustice as in Islam it is necessary to protect body and to save life, urged the two dervishes to end their long-term hunger strike.
In a part of the letter is stating that “as your hunger strike is a message of love and compassion for all our brothers and coterie, which has come across internal and external community, it is time to end your strike in order to save your precious lives and make all Gonabadi Dervishes happy by that.”
In this letter they have also pointed to the responsibilities of Iranian judicial authorities for any risks to Dervish hunger strikers’s lives as a result of their ongoing hunger strike.
Due to their prolonged hunger strike and also because of judicial and security authorities’s lack of attention to their critical condition, Dervishes from all over the world including “Australia”, Shiraz, Lorestan Province (Khorram Abad, Broujerd, Alashtar, Doroud, Azna, Aligoudarz) Kermanshah Province, Khozestan Province, Semnan Province, Khorasan Province and Hamedan Province (Hamedan, Malayer, Nahavand) in signed different letters have asked them to end the hunger strike. Also 22 imprisoned Green Movement activists in Ward 350 of Evin prison, previously have issued an open letter urging them to end their refusal to eat.
Recently, a statement has been published by 362 political activists, civil and Human Rights activist and university professors regarding the demands of the two Dervish hunger strikers and called for their immediate release.
Also, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has expressed concern over the conditions of two jailed dervishes. In an open letter to Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ebadi warned that Moradi and Nouri are in a “critical” condition. Then the human rights officer at the German Foreign Ministry, Mr. Markus Löning expressed concern over the health condition of the two Gonabadi Dervishes who are on hunger strike. The German Foreign Ministry on Thursday (28 March / 8 Farvardin) by publishing a statement reacted to the recent news about Iranian Dervishes.
It should be reminded that, two imprisoned Gonabadi Dervishes, Saleh Moradi and Kasra Nouri who have been behind bars for more than 19 months in Shiraz’s Adel Abad prison without being charged in court, have lunched a hunger strike since 85 days ago to protest the illegal and inhumane conditions of imprisonment of seven Gonabadi dervishes’s lawyers and Majzooban Noor website managers in solitary confinement of Evin prison in the past 86 days and lack of care for their critical health conditions. Hunger strikers required prison officials to transfer back their lawyers to the general ward of Evin Prison but unfortunately their simple demand has not been met yet .