HRANA News Agency – Mahvash (Sayeh) Seydal, a political prisoner held in Evin Prison, is now on the eighth day of her hunger and medication strike. Despite a serious decline in her health that led to her transfer to the hospital last night, she was returned to prison in poor physical condition.
According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists in Iran, Sayeh Seydal continues her hunger and medication strike in Evin Prison for the eighth consecutive day.
On the night of June 1, Seydal was transferred from prison to a hospital due to worsening health. Medical tests revealed the presence of a hemorrhagic cyst. She refused to take prescribed medication and, despite her critical condition, was returned to prison.
Seydal began her hunger and medication strike on May 26, 2025, in protest against the lack of adequate medical care in prison.
On March 10, 2025, Seydal was formally charged in Branch 3 of the Evin Prosecutor’s Office in connection with a new case opened during her incarceration, facing accusations of property damage and disturbing public order.
She had been granted furlough on February 3, 2025. During that time, she posted on Instagram that upon reporting to Branch 1 of the Sentence Enforcement Office at Evin Prosecutor’s Office, she was physically assaulted and insulted by a security officer for refusing to wear a chador. Seydal stated that when she attempted to file a complaint, the prosecutor refused to register it.
Seydal was first arrested on October 6, 2024, by security forces and transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison.
Following a new conviction, her previously suspended sentence was converted into an enforceable one. She was prosecuted in Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges including “spreading falsehoods” and was sentenced to two years in prison and paying a fine. One of the charges related to her reposting news about the wave of poisonings targeting schoolgirls.
In November 2023, the same court under Judge Iman Afshari had previously sentenced her to one year in prison and a fine for “spreading falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion,” though the prison sentence had been suspended for five years.
Seydal was initially arrested on June 21, 2023, along with several other Clubhouse activists in Tehran, reportedly due to her activity on the platform. She was released on bail from The Ministry of Intelligence’s detention facility (Ward 209 of Evin Prison) on July 23, 2023.
HRANA’s data from the past decade shows that during this ten-year period, over 2,050 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran prisons have been forced to go on hunger strike in protest of various abuses—including prolonged detention, being held in legal limbo, unfair trials, poor prison conditions, and being held in solitary confinement or alongside inmates convicted of violent crimes.
