Accompanied by 50 Gonabadi Dervishes, the imprisoned Dervishes’ families came to the meeting room in Evin Prison to visit their loved ones yesterday morning on 1 Mehr 1393 (September 23, 2014). In his meeting with the 8 imprisoned Sufis, the head of Evin Prison rejected the Deputy Prosecutor General’s claim of not being aware of the Dervish prisoners’ hunger strike. The imprisoned Sufis avoided going to the meeting room to visit their families asking them to visit the injured Dervishes. The prisoners said all Sufis are family and they were sorry that Dervishes had been beaten and attacked defending them.
As reported by Majzooban Noor, this was the most important event to happen in the highest level security-protected prison yesterday, Tuesday, 23-09-2014. The full account of this visit is as follows:
The imprisoned Dervishes’ families accompanied by 50 Gonabadi Dervishes in the meeting room in Evin

Yesterday more than 50 Gonabadi Dervishes who had come to Tehran from other cities accompanied the 8 imprisoned Sufis’ families to the meeting room in Evin.
The mentioned Dervishes asked the authorities to avoid illegally forcing the imprisoned lawyers to wear prison uniforms and handcuffs and, by doing so, pave the way for the families of the imprisoned Dervish lawyers to visit them after two months of no visits.
The Dervishes congregated in and near the meeting room for a long time after office hours, until prison authorities announced that the prisoners could meet with their families, after 23 days of hunger strike, and under the terms requested, provided that all Sufis other than the prisoners’ families would leave the meeting room, which they did.
This terms were agreed although Mr. Khodabakhshi, the Deputy Prosecutor General, had said the day before that he had not been aware of Gonabadi Dervishes’ two-day rally and the prisoners’ hunger strike and that the prisoners would be allowed to meet their families only in prison uniforms and handcuffs.
However, the 8 imprisoned Dervishes did not go to the meeting room for the reasons explained below.

The meeting of the head of Evin Prison with the 8 imprisoned Dervishes

The Gonabadi Dervishes were waiting in front of the Evin meeting room and the room’s personnel were making arrangements for the after-hours visits, whilst Mr. Rashidi, the head of Evin Prison, met with the jailed Dervishes.
He addressed the hunger strikers: “We have verbally informed all authorities of your hunger strike and your requests, and none can claim to be unaware of this. We have told them about your conditions, but we have not heard back from them yet.

Why the imprisoned Sufis avoided going to the meeting room

After their meeting with the head of Evin Prison and being informed of the decision as to their not being required to wear prison uniform and handcuffs, the jailed Dervishes released a short message “Our problem is not handcuffs and illegal imprisonment. Our request is not about our families visiting. All Sufis are family. They came onto the streets in Tehran over the past two days with covered eyes and tied hands and were beaten and injured. We prisoners appreciate the presence of the 50 Dervishes who have accompanied our families into the meeting room. However, as long as our request for Sufis’ freedom is not fulfilled, we will not come to the meeting room”.
Finally, the 8 prisoners asked their families to visit those Dervishes who were hospitalized after being attacked and injured by security forces. The prisoners also said “All Sufis are family and unfortunately their blood has been wrongfully spilled and they have been tortured”.
These 8 imprisoned Dervishes have gone on indefinite hunger strike objecting to the pressures that the Iranian followers of the mystical Sufi tradition of Islam have been suffering and announced that they would welcome death unless their demands are fulfilled.
The health condition of all nine jailed Dervishes in Tehran’s Evin prison and Shiraz’s Nezam prison has significantly deteriorated.