These shocking images show how a jailed activist in Iran has been reduced to just skin and bones after a hunger strike behind bars.

Independent media reported that Farhad Meysami’s condition is rapidly deteriorating following his protest at grim Rajai-Shahr Prison in Karaj.

The haunting photos – which appear to have been taken in a shower stall – show shaven-headed Farhad with a skull-like face.

His torso is so emaciated that every one of his ribs can be counted.

The doctor, teacher, and political activist has been locked up since August 2018 and is serving a six-year sentence for protesting against Iran’s mandatory headscarf rule.

It is not Meysami’s first hunger strike in prison. He last stopped eating in May to protest the pending execution of Ahmad Reza Djalali.

Djalali – an Iranian-Swedish physician, lecturer, and researcher – was taken hostage in Iran in April 2016 and was later sentenced to death for espionage and treason.

After two weeks, Meysami ended his hunger strike when Djalali was not put to death.

However, during that time, his health worsened to the point where he had to be hospitalised.

As well as calling for the scrapping of Iran’s hijab law, Meysami, 53, is demanding the release of several fellow activists from Iranian jails.

In a recent letter addressed to prison officials, he wrote: “I will still insist on my three demands of stopping the execution of protesters, releasing six political prisoners, and stopping mandatory hijab.”