Denied asylum in the UK on April 5, Mehran and Mahyar Meyari began their hunger strike that day and even sewed their mouths shut. Mahyar, 17, told the local newspaper, the Ilford Recorder, that he had been arrested in Iran during the opposition demonstrations of 2009 and was beaten numerous times and raped while in custody.
“Definitely, they will imprison me or hang me if I go back to Iran,” he said. “That’s why we decided to do this [hunger strike], because we fear that they will send us back to Iran.”
Living in Ilford, a northeastern suburb of London, the brothers came to the United Kingdom last year. They then marched through London with supporters walking alongside them on both sides.
Last Friday, the Meyari brothers and four other Iranians also on a hunger strike marched in London from Parliament Square to the Home Office, the government ministry that handles immigration. The other Iranians were Keyvan Bahari, Kiavash Bahari, 26, Morteza Bayat, 30, and Ahmad Sadeghi.
Although the distance was only half a mile, it was not an easy hike after almost five weeks of a hunger strike. Mehran described the last five weeks as “very painful.” He told the Recorder, “I’ve been getting dizzy and we’re very weak at the moment because we’re only drinking water.” Mahyar said he had been hospitalized several times in the last month.
Eleven days into the strike, Mahyar said, “I will do this as long as it takes. I do not fear death. Life means nothing without freedom.… If I go home, I will die. This is clear to me. So we will stay here until someone listens.”
