hunger strike

hunger strike (plural hunger strikes)

1. A fast undertaken as a means of protest, often by a prisoner.
   • 2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 September 2013:

     Alekhina has become a vocal advocate for prisoners’ rights, a sort of jailhouse lawyer who has exposed numerous violations, filed copious complaints, and, in May, held an 11-day hunger strike that succeeded in changing conditions in her penal colony.