British-Iranian activist Vahid Beheshti has said he believes his life may never return to normal because of the global attention and threats he faces following his 72-day hunger strike in protest against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Speaking to The National from his hospital bed, the 45-year-old opened up about his harrowing experience and vowed to continue pressing the UK government adopt a tougher line on Iran.
Mr Beheshti ended his hunger strike on May 5 after surviving on a diet of water, coffee, salt and sugar cubes for more than two months.
He had been camping outside the Foreign Office as part of his bid to raise awareness about atrocities being committed in his homeland and to pressure Prime Minster Rishi Sunak's government to proscribe the IRGC as a terror organisation.
‘No going back’
“I know my life is not going to be the same as before the hunger strike and I accept that,” Mr Beheshti said on Tuesday, his 12th day in hospital.
“We are dealing with the most brutal mafia in the world, which is the IRGC.”
Asked how he feels about his future after being sent threats from those he believes are acting on behalf of the regime, he said: “It’s better to stay positive about it because there is no way back.”
Dressed in a hospital gown and a wristband reading “Woman, Life, Freedom” – a slogan that has come to represent anti-government protests led by Iranian girls and women – the activist was keen to stress that he is not the only person in the UK being threatened by Tehran.
The head of MI5, the UK’s domestic security agency, last year revealed that at least 10 Iranian plots to kill or abduct people in Britain had been detected.
Last November, British MPs and members of the House of Lords were advised to “stay vigilant” due to potential cyber attacks by Iranian hackers.
Steel fences were erected around Iran International’s newsroom in west London after journalists there received death threats from Tehran. The channel, which is often critical of the regime, was forced to temporarily close its UK newsroom earlier this year.
'UK must wake up'
Mr Beheshti said Mr Sunak’s government should not wait for any further threats or incidents but instead push ahead with a proscription of the IRGC.
He warned that if ministers “won’t wake up [then] the IRGC agents will make them”.
“If they come to the streets of London and do something tragic, then it’s too late to wake up,” he said.
The National has closely followed Mr Beheshti’s campaign from the outset.
He lost 18 kilograms – 22.5 per cent of his body weight – and suffered vitamin deficiencies. But doctors have said there is no permanent damage to his organs and he is responding well to treatment and the reintroduction of food.
His wife Mattie Heaven admitted she was relieved to have persuaded him to eat after fearing for his life during his hunger strike.
“He never told me how difficult it was. He always kept it to himself,” Ms Heaven said at his bedside.
This was no accident, Mr Beheshti said, but part of a coping strategy he devised to keep his mind off food.
He followed the advice of a mentor who told him that “your words create your world”.
“When you’re repeating something, you’re creating it again and again,” he explained.
“I think that was the secret of my being able to continue. I knew if I kept repeating, ‘I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m dying for food’ then I would increase mental pressure on myself.
“So I reversed that and kept repeating ‘I am OK’. That’s how I could carry on and help myself. The main thing that was helping me was my state of mind through meditation.”
Recalling the moment he knew his body could take no more, he said: “I couldn’t breathe any more. The feeling was [like] somebody sitting on my chest. Then I heard the voices of a few nurses and I saw that the ambulance was there.”
He described how breaking his fast with “two spoons of tomato soup” felt like “heaven”.
Mr Beheshti has welcomed the support from fellow opponents of the Iranian regime around the world.
Despite bringing his strike to an end, he has vowed to return to his tent outside the Foreign Office to keep up the pressure on UK ministers to put the IRGC on the UK’s terror list.
“I will stay there until we achieve this together,” he said. “Now, we have a big army of UK politicians behind us. It is completely different to before the strike.
“This is a domestic issue and all our fellow British citizens need to understand this.
“This is our fight. This is about our safety and security here in the UK.”
A spokesman for the UK government said: “While we do not comment on future designations, we will continue to take strong action against Iran while they threaten people in the UK and around the world.
“We have sanctioned more than 300 Iranian individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in its entirety. In the last six months, we have announced eight further packages of human rights sanctions.
“We do not tolerate threats to life and intimidation of any kind towards individuals in the UK and will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to protect against any threats from the Iranian state.”
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