Two Azerbaijani activists have gone on a hunger strike to protest the lack of education in their mother tongue in Iran that has a sizeable population of Azerbaijani Turks.
Both activists – Alireza Farshi and Abbas Lesani – are serving lenghty terms in prisons in Iran and are active advocates of wider usesage of the Azerbaijani Turks language in that country.
Alireza Farshi published a letter on October 11 announcing the start of a three-day hunger strike to protest against problems such as the lack of education in the Azerbaijani language, racial discrimination, and injustice against Iranian Azerbaijanis.
Farshi was sentenced to four years in prison term on charges of “propaganda against the Iran government” and “organizing a meeting in opposition to the Iran government”, in late 2019. It should be noted that while in custody, Alireza Farshi was injured in his eyes and was sent on a three-day medical leave from Grand Tehran Prison on May 7, 2020. However, despite the ophthalmologist’s insistence that urgent eye surgery was required, the prison authorities refused to extend his leave
Another Azerbaijani human rights activist Abbas Lesani also started a hunger strike in support of Farshi in Ardabil prison.
Abbas Lesani is a famous rights activist who has been advocating for constitutional rights of Azerbaijani Turks in Iran, including the right to use mother tongue.
Announced a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International, Lesani was sentenced to 15-year jail term in 2019 on trumped-up charges, including on charges including “spreading propaganda against the system”. He has held several hunger strikes in the Ardabil Prison where he has been held since 2019.
Lesani is the author of the book “Ozgurluk Harayi” (Shout for Freedom), which includes a collection of articles, speeches, poems, interviews, and his letters from prison that has been published by Azerbaijani activists.
The usage of mother tongue, namely the right to receive education in this language, has been a central issue for Azerbaijani Turks who comprise at leaest one third of Iran’s populatin of roughly 84 million people.
