The Loneliest Prisoner

A hunger strike is a cry for help from one without a voice. A human risking life in desperation of a way back to life.

Mana Neyestani, Mohammad Nazari, The Loneliest, October 22, 2017.

Mana Neyestani has portrayed Mohammad Nazari filing off his own body as the only thing left to him. Mohammad Nazari has been on hunger strike for 80 days following 24 years of imprisonment.

He was 23, when he was sentenced.

His crime consisted in being a member of the Iranian Kurdish party. A death sentence was later changed to a life of imprisonment. Since 2013 a said membership is no longer a crime.

Still, he is locked in and in his lonely fight to see freedom, Mana Neyestani has transformed him into his own monument. Honoring his bravery, Mohammad Nazari is drawn holding one hand high in spite of being hollowed from within from the metal of imprisonment.

He is drawn without a face given his destiny. Yet, his courage is of a strength beyond the humanly possible and Mana Neyestani has placed him so high to emphasize that we have to look up him even when seeing him on paper.

Let the final words be Mohammad Nazari's own. Words from an open letter of October 18:

"Don’t abandon me. I don’t have anyone. My father, mother and brother were laid to rest years ago in the cemetery in Boukan. Your helping hand is my only hope. Help me. Help me so that my voice can be heard. Help me gain the freedom I am legally entitled to."

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Mana Neyestani and must not be reproduced without his permission.