A jailed Iranian student has gone on a hunger strike after she was banned from seeing her family because she refused to wear a hijab when her father came to see her.

Leila Hosseinzadeh is currently in Adel Abad prison in the city of Shiraz, in Fars Province, in south-western Iran.

She is a master’s student in anthropology at Tehran University, a political activist, and the former secretary of the central union council of Tehran University students.

She has been repeatedly arrested and jailed by the regime for years.

Her latest stint in jail started after Leila was reportedly beaten and arrested by security forces in front of her home on 20th August.

She was first arrested and jailed in 2016 and again in 2018 when she was sentenced to two years and six months behind bars.

She was then released early in 2019 from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after a medical examiner exempted her from imprisonment.

The examiner’s medical certificate said that Leila – who suffers from Crohn’s disease – could not be imprisoned without a serious risk to her life.

Despite this, Leila was then arrested again in 2021 in Shiraz before being released after 26 days.

Leila has now reportedly gone on a hunger strike after her latest arrest last August, after she she was banned from seeing her family while in prison.

She had refused to wear a hijab while meeting with her father who had come to see her in prison on 7th November, according to the Iranian Students Union.

Leila’s brother Abolfazl Hosseinzadeh reportedly wrote that his sister came to the meeting with her father without a hijab and said: “There is no boundary between street and prison for resistance, we stand against coercion everywhere.”

Abolfazl has reportedly said that his sister’s health condition is serious and is worried.

Leila has so far been jailed for nearly 80 days this time despite her medical certificate exempting her from incarceration, with her jail time reportedly being extended again in the last few days.

Abolfazl reportedly contacted the prison authorities to make sure that Leila – who knits shawls to pay for her custody in prison as prisoners in Iran have to pay for their own incarceration – receives proper medical treatment but his plea has gone unanswered.

The Students Union Council has reportedly called for her release and said that Leila’s detention is “illegal”, as her medical certificate should exempt her from being detained any further.

Her brother has reportedly quoted Leila as saying: “Our female revolution requires not only dance and resistance, but also love and creation.

“Behind the walls of the prison, although I sleep with the screams of the executioners and I wake up with the begging screams of those about to be executed, and the curse of the iron [stool] that is removed from under their feet, I dance every day and knit with all my love to warm myself in the hard, cold and red days of war.

“To victory.”

Iranian forces have been cracking down on waves of civil disorder following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, who was on a visit to Tehran when she was arrested by morality police, accused of violating hijab rules on 13th September.

She was allegedly beaten while in custody and spent the following days in a coma in the hospital before succumbing in the ICU on 16th September.

The clinic where she was treated said in a now-deleted social media post that she had been admitted brain-dead.

Alleged medical scans of her skull leaked by hackers showed that she had suffered bone fractures, haemorrhages, and brain oedema.

Independent Iranian media have claimed that Mahsa’s medical records showing her history of heart disease were faked by the Iranian government.

Numbers differ regarding how many people have been killed since the protests began.

The protests have so far claimed at least 328 lives, including 45 minors, and injured at least 1,160, according to independent estimates.

It is also understood that over 14,825 people have so far been arrested.