Guantánamo prisoners' hunger strike

The Guantánamo prisoners' hunger strike was a collective protest against conditions that included endless interrogation, some guards’ disrespect toward a sacred text, and nights spent in a cold room. Mohamedou Ould Slahi joined many other detainees, but ended his participation after four days, exposing the tension between solidarity with the group and the limits of his own endurance.

Background and Grievances

The account places the strike in a period whose identifying details are obscured in the manuscript. Slahi connects the detainees’ decision to several accumulating grievances: relentless interrogation, disrespect by some guards toward a sacred text, and the use of cold rooms overnight. He notes that the cold-room practice was less frequent in this period than it would become later, but includes it among the conditions that contributed to the strike.

Participation and Its Limit

Many detainees took part, including Slahi. He continued for four days, then stopped, describing himself as utterly depleted. The account gives no broader tally of participants or duration for the strike; its focus remains on Slahi’s own brief participation and the point at which he could no longer continue.

Solidarity and Significance

A Saudi neighbor urged Slahi not to break, warning that doing so would weaken the group. Slahi explained that he had intended to undertake a hunger strike, not to die, and that he could not continue. The exchange makes the strike’s collective stakes explicit while preserving the difference between a shared act of protest and each detainee’s capacity to sustain it. The episode presents the hunger strike as a response to the conditions Slahi describes, while also showing the pressure that group solidarity placed on an individual participant.