{"word_count": 668, "character_count": 4636}
See the French version here&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; On December 23rd,Fariba Adelkhah, an academic prisoner in Iran since June 5th,co-signed a letter with her colleague in misfortune, the Australian KylieMoore-Gilbert, in which both announced that they would go on a hunger strikefrom December 24th to obtain recognition of their innocence andrespect for academic freedom in the Islamic Republic and the entire MiddleEast.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; While we have no precise news ofKylie Moore-Gilbert, who is still being held in the Revolutionary Guard sectionof Evin prison in Tehran and sentenced to 10 years in prison, we know thatFariba Adelkhah has been transferred to the women’s common law section of the prison,has been cleared by a court on charges of espionage while continuing to face theother equally fanciful charges ("national security offences" and"propaganda against the Islamic Republic"), and is still on a hungerstrike to this day. She is under medical supervision and receives regularinjections of serum to enable her to resist physically. Psychologically, herdetermination remains firm. It is not, in her mind, a strike of despair, but afight to obtain her release, and also that of all the scientific prisoners inIran and, above all, that of her partner Roland Marchal, arrested at the sametime as her, still detained in the Revolutionary Guard section, and deprived ofconsular visits since December. Fariba Adelkhah would be prepared to suspendher hunger strike if Roland Marchal were released, as she has the gravestconcerns about his state of health - fears that we share as we wonder what theRevolutionary Guards have to hide to refuse the consular visit due to ourcolleague, and which the recent publication on the site of the Centre for HumanRights in Iran of letters written by Kylie Moore-Gilbert during her detentionhave only served to reinforce.                A week ago, Fariba Adelkhah, while continuing her hunger strike, refused to return to her cell  and has since been holding a sit-in in the communal areas of the prison - it seems that the term used is that of bast, a place of asylum and ethical protest, which would implicitly refer to the constitutional revolution of 1906, during which mosques and embassies were used as sanctuaries for dissidents calling for the establishment of the rule of law and justice. Fariba Adelkhah has demanded to meet with Roland Marchal to comfort him and check on his health, and she has strongly protested against the isolation to which he has been subjected. The Revolutionary Guards have refused to allow this visit on the pretext that they are not legally married. In fact, they were married in a religious ceremony at the time of their joint studies in Strasbourg at the end of the 1970s. Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal's lawyer is currently working to legalize this marriage in order to unblock the situation.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Fariba Adelkhah is insistent in herrefusal of any politicization of her incarceration. She was arrested by a veryspecific institution, that of the Revolutionary Guards, whose interrogationsshowed their complete ignorance of what scientific research is, unlike theMinistry of Intelligence, which had questioned her several times over the past twentyyears. She repeats that she has never engaged in any political activity in orabout Iran and that she has never questioned the legitimacy of the IslamicRepublic, having always considered that her scientific activity wasincompatible with political activism. She does not therefore consider herself apolitical prisoner, but an academic prisoner, as we had immediately asserted,as soon as her arrest was known. Her hunger strike has no other demand than therecognition of academic freedom in general, and in particular that of RolandMarchal and her own. She knows that her struggle has met with approval or been heardwithin the Islamic Republic itself, and that she enjoys the understanding of someamong the political, administrative or judicial authorities.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; On the basis of this information, we reiterate our demand for the immediate and unconditional release of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, as well as the other scientific prisoners in Iran. We hold the Government of the Islamic Republic responsible for the physical and mental integrity of our colleagues.The support committee