A female prisoner has died at Tehran's Qarchak Prison after being repeatedly denied access to external medical care, according to human rights sources.
Farzaneh Bijanipour lost consciousness on Sunday evening and was pronounced dead after being transferred to the prison's medical facility.
The Bidarzani human rights website reports that prison medical staff accused Bijanipour of feigning illness when she sought help the previous evening, providing only painkillers despite her deteriorating condition.
In protest of her death, fellow inmates in Ward 6, where Bijanipour was held, launched a hunger strike on Sunday.
The protesters said that prison authorities consistently denied Bijanipour's requests for transfer to an external medical facility, even as her health worsened.
Human rights organizations have long criticized what they describe as the systematic denial of adequate medical treatment to prisoners, characterizing it as a human rights violation.
Bijanipour, serving a sentence for non-political crimes, first reported feeling unwell on Saturday evening.
After being dismissed by medical staff and given only basic pain medication, her condition continued to worsen until her death the following day.
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