Iranian student activist in need of surgery in prison

Bahareh Hedayat

Bahareh Hedayat, prominent Iranian student activist is reportedly suffering from gall bladder stones in Evin Prison and is in need of surgery.

Amin Ahmadian, Hedayat’s husband told the International Campaign for Human Rights that Bahareh Hedayat did not suffer from this ailment prior to being incarcerated and the stones must be “a product of the prison conditions.”

He added that he has not been allowed to visit her wife in person for the past eight months because Tehran’s Prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi has refused his requests to visit his wife.

Ahmadian reported that Bahareh Hedayat is being held in a section of the prison called “methadone” along with a number of other women political prisoners and this section reportedly has fewer facilities compared to the general section and its telephone lines are also cut off.

Bahareh Hedayat is an executive member of the student organization, Tahkim-e Vahadat which is Iran’s largest student organization. She was arrested last December and has been sentenced to nine and a half years in prison which was also approved in the appellate court.

She has been charged with “assembly and collusion against the regime”, “insulting the leader and the president” as well as “propaganda against the regime."

Bahareh Hedayat was nominated for the Student Peace Prize in 2010 by the European Student’s Union, an umbrella organization of 45 national unions comprised of students from 35 different countries.