Global exceptionalism

Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: "Why I have gone on hunger strike"

In an open letter, the imprisoned Pussy Riot member explains why the brutal conditions at Penal Colony No 14 have led her to undertake a hunger strike in protest

On 6 February, reacting to the military's attempt to search their Qur'ans, Guantánamo detainees began a general hunger strike. The strike has since broadened into a protest against indefinite detention. The strike is now in its fifth month and shows no sign of abating. The hunger strikers have vowed to strike until the US government stops searching Qur'ans and resumes transfers, even if that means they will strike until they die.

The military initially denied that there was a hunger strike. It now concedes that 104 of the 151 "low-value" detainees are hunger-striking, and that 44 of the 104 are being force-fed (although the military does not use the term "force-fed"). More than a dozen of my own clients are hunger-striking, including four who are being force-fed.