Authorities in Iran have cancelled Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s weekly phone calls with her husband and have begun reducing her food rations, after the jailed British-Iranian charity worker announced she was planning a hunger strike.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, writing in a letter released by a human rights charity last week, said she intends to go on a three-day hunger strike later this month alongside prominent rights activist Narges Mohammadi to protest being denied medical treatment.
The attention drawn to her case appears to have prompted a further crackdown on her rights at Evin prison.
Free Nazanin, an organisation run by Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe’s family calling for her release, tweeted on Sunday: "Following announcement of a planned hunger strike, Iranian authorities have cancelled Nazanin’s weekly call with her husband and imposed restrictions on all other calls."
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Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency, tweeted: "Heartbreaking news that Nazanin’s right to call her family and husband is now being restricted.
"My constituent has suffered enough and our Gov’t must stop this attempt to cut her off from the outside world.”
Barbara Ratcliffe
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, told the Telegraph last week that the final straw for Nazanin, marked her 40th birthday in Evin prison on Boxing Day, was being denied access to a doctor for lumps in her breast.
“She has decided that enough is enough,” he said of her decision to go on a hunger strike. “Talking and lobbying in other ways hasn’t worked."
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was working for Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at the international airport in Tehran, when she was leaving the country after a visit with her family.
She was charged with ambiguous accusations of spying and plotting against the Islamic Republic and sentenced to five years in prison.
Julian Andrews
She is eligible for parole, having served half of her sentence, however, this has so far been refused by Iranian authorities.
"In general, Iranian authorities do not treat political prisoners and prisoners of conscience well. They do this to put pressure on them to force them to stop their activities," Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Centre, told the Telegraph.
"If this issue attracts the attention of the public then the government may at least respect its own laws and allow the two women to receive treatment."