Three Christians in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran have staged hunger strikes in recent months to protest against their detention and cruel treatment.
In the last five months, two men, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Amir-Ali Minaei, and one woman, Ghazal Marzban, have been among those arrested in Iran for their Christian faith and activity. Suffering broken bones and other medical complaints, they have each protested their situation by refusing food.
Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh is 63 years old and had previously spent almost five years in prison for his faith. Rearrested on 6 February, according to organisation Church in Chains, he began his hunger strike not to protest his personal circumstances but in solidarity with the other Christian converts being persecuted and imprisoned in Iran. After 35 days of the strike, on 17 March, he was found face down in his solitary-confinement cell having suffered a stroke. He still lacks movement in his left-hand side, and it isn’t known how many more years he will remain behind bars. Naser movingly ended his hunger strike by quoting John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.
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