Reza Shahabi is an employee and union member who has spent almost 19 months behind bars in Evin prison. He embarked on a hunger strike to protest being held with an unknown circumstance.

With the passing of 2 weeks since his hunger strike, his sister Zahra Shahabi expressed her worry for her brother’s physical condition in an interview with BBC Farsi. She said, “We were able to contact my brother by phone on December 4th, 2011 but he spoke with great difficulty and was in very poor health. The medical authorities have said that my brother is in need of surgery.”

Even though 5 months have gone by since her brother’s last court session, Mrs. Shahabi’s efforts to obtain any information about his situation form those in charge have been futile.

Labor activist Reza Shahabi was arrested on July 2010 and according to his sister the charge against him stems from “contacts with foreigners.”

Her eyes

At night
When I was wandering through lane by lane of my thought
the noise of a known walking, waved in my ears
The light; which was shining from the moon
had caste the shadow of the loneliness
on my vision
and the steps disappeared in that shadow...

When she came to the head of the kindness lane
she turned the head
and it was just her eyes;
which was shining
In that darkness

Behind that flash
deep in her eyes,
sadness?
no, it wasn’t sadness
I saw the tiredness

Mahyar Faravardeh
2006