Christian convert Maryam (Nasim) Naghash Zargaran has been taken back to prison from hospital without receiving any medical treatment, despite falling unconscious during a hunger strike.

Nasim was taken to hospital after falling ill on 29 May, the fourth day of her hunger strike in protest against the prosecutor’s refusal to grant her parole.

Nasim qualifies for parole, having served over one-third of her four-year sentence.

According to a report from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Nasim’s blood pressure “suddenly dropped and she was transferred, while unconscious, from prison to the hospital”. 

But despite her condition, Nasim was returned to prison later the same day, having received no treatment. 

“It was a few minutes before she recognised her relatives who came to see her in the hospital,” the campaign group’s source reported. “She needed to stay, but they returned her to prison without proper treatment.

“Maryam took pills for her heart disease before she was sent to prison, and doctors had told her to stay away from stressful situations. But after her imprisonment, stress and psychological pressures have made her condition much worse.

“She has problems with her middle ear, and doctors have recommended surgery, but nothing has been done about it. She has lost so much weight that her family was shocked when they last saw her… We are worried for her health. Her life is in danger.”

Nasim has been in prison since July 2013, serving a four-year prison sentence for “propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic and gathering and conspiracy against the security of the country” through “the expansion of house-churches inside the country”.