Iran's leading human rights defender 'on her last legs' after authorities signed prisoner’s 'death warrant'

Activist is approaching the 50th day of her hunger strike, Maya Oppenheim reports

No one is more emblematic of the struggle to achieve the freedoms that we still take for granted in the west than Sotoudeh, whose clients include women jailed for taking their hijabs off in street protests last year

Iran’s leading human rights defender is “on her last legs” after authorities signed the prisoner’s “death warrant” by denying her an urgent heart-related procedure, campaigners warned.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer who represented women who protested against the forced hijab, is said to currently be in a life-threatening condition as she approaches the 50th day of her hunger strike.

Women’s rights are stringently restricted in Iran and wearing a headscarf is compulsory in public for all women there – with those who do not wear a hijab, or have some of their hair on display while wearing a hijab, facing punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment.