This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International. To mark this, Amnesty, in association withThe Irish Times, will profile a prisoner of conscience each month, someone held in prison solely for their work in support of human rights.
AS YOU read this Mao Hengfeng, a Chinese mother of three and a former factory worker, is being held in what the Chinese government calls a Re-education Through Labour (RTL) facility. Others would simply call it a labour camp. Her 18-month sentence is for taking part in a peaceful protest in support of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo last March.
But this is not the first time Mao Hengfeng has been behind bars. In 1988 she was working in a soap factory when she became pregnant with her third child, violating China’s family planning regulations. She was ordered by officials at the factory to have an abortion but she refused, determined to continue her pregnancy and give birth.
She was taken by force to a nearby psychiatric hospital where she was injected with various drugs in an effort to abort the pregnancy.
Despite this, Mao miraculously gave birth to her third daughter, Wu Qingxia, though the drugs she had been forced to take left the child with many health problems.
When she returned to her job, after giving birth she was immediately dismissed for missing work even though this had been because she was detained in the hospital.
Since then Mao Hengfeng has dedicated herself to standing up for people like herself, whose human rights are abused and violated by the Chinese state, particularly families at risk of forced eviction.
Even now, alone in Anhui Provincial Women’s RTL facility, she refuses to back down.
According to information smuggled out to her family, Mao has been repeatedly beaten by other prisoners on the instructions of camp staff.
When she went on hunger strike last May to protest her imprisonment she was brutally force-fed with a feeding tube specially sharpened at one end, causing scratches and internal bleeding along her throat.
Twice in September guards tied her hands behind her back and also tied up her legs for days because of her determined refusal to back down from protesting against human rights abuses in the facility.
International pressure is already having an impact on Mao’s case. Last month her family was allowed to visit her for the first time since she was arrested in February 2010. Her husband is convinced this is at least partly because of the support Mao has received from around the world.
Her family hopes the visit is a sign her conditions might improve, but know how important it is to keep up the momentum.
Please write calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Mao Hengfeng to His Excellency, the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Liu Biwei, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, 40 Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Or log on to www.amnesty.ie \ , and take action online.