Quick Facts
Biography
Arash Sadeghi (Persian: آرش صادقی) is an Iranian human rights activist and political prisoner known best for his hunger strike as an act of protest against the detention of his wife without any judiciary proof or legal warrant. Arash was a university student in Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran where he was expelled by the authorities due to his political activities.
Sadeghi ended his hunger strike after 71 days after his wife was granted temporary release from prison.
Activism
He was first arrested on July 9 2009 after the results of the controversial 2009 Presidential Election were announced due to which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be kept in power for a second term. He was then taken to custody from which he was released after 90 days. He was arrested again for a second time in December of the same year.
In 2013 he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the following charges: propaganda against the government, defamation of the supreme leader, and threatening national security.
Arash went on a hunger strike on October 24, 2016 to protest against the arrest of his wife who was detained on the charge of writing a fiction which has not yet been published. The short story was handwritten in her personal diary which was confiscated in a raid by government security agents. Her short personal story in her journal was about Stoning Women to death which has been carried out by the Iranian judiciary.
Mother's Death Due to Security Forces' Raid
During an earlier raid by Iranian security forces in 2010 when he was not home, his mother suffered a heart attack and died a few days later in hospital as a result of the heart attack. The security agents kept ransacking the house while she laid on the floor due to the heart attack.
There are multiple campaigns currently raising awareness about his condition.
Twitter Campaign
On the 68th day of his strike, Iranian Twitter users started a widespread campaign to raise awareness about Arash Sadeghi's critical condition; consequently, the hashtag #SaveArash became the number 1 trending hashtag on twitter.