Social media posts allegedly showing an emaciated prisoner Iranian dissident on a hunger strike have sparked outrage online as supporters warned on Friday that he risks dying because of his opposition to the hijab's mandatory wear.

Farhad Meysami, 53, started his hunger strike on October 7 to protest recent government killings of protesters, according to the dissident's lawyer. Meysami has been imprisoned since 2018 for supporting female activists who opposed Iran's headscarf policy.

On the same day that Iranian award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi was released on bail after serving seven months in prison, pictures of Meysami went viral on social media. Panahi claimed that Meysami's pictures made him think of Auschwitz concentration camp survivors.

Iran's judiciary refuted the claim that Meysami was on a hunger strike and stated that the pictures were taken four years prior, when he actually was.

As proof, the semi-official YJC news agency published what it claimed to be Meysami's most recent photograph, in which he does not appear to be malnourished and is seated on the floor of his cell with a bag of what appears to be chips next to him.

According to the Directors Guild of Iran and the semi-official ISNA news agency, Panahi began a hunger strike this week to ask for his release pending a retrial and Iranian authorities responded by releasing him on bail.

Although the Iranian judiciary has not officially announced Panahi's release, videos posted on social media purport to show him speaking to supporters outside Evin prison.

Given that Farhad Meysami has written about nonviolence, Panahi said, "The images of Farhad Meysami... remind one of the people in Auschwitz or of (Mahatma) Gandhi." "How can I say I'm happy when so many people are still in jail?"

Panahi was imprisoned by Iranian authorities in July to fulfill a six-year sentence that had been originally imposed in 2010 for "propaganda against the system." The decision was overturned by Iran's supreme court in October, which also mandated a new trial.

The death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 while in police custody, one of the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, has sparked widespread unrest throughout Iran.

Amini was detained by the morality police for disobeying the hijab rule, which mandates that women dress modestly and don headscarves. Women have been actively participating in the protests, many of whom have waved or set fire to their headscarves.

According to rights groups, there have been over 500 protesters killed and close to 20,000 people detained. According to the Iranian judiciary, at least four people have been hanged.

"He and thousands of other political prisoners have been wrongfully denied rights and freedom by the Iranian regime. Now it unfairly puts his life in danger," he said.

"These images (of Meysami) are a shocking reminder of the Iranian authorities' disregard for human rights," declared Amnesty International.

Meysami listed three demands in a letter that was made public by the BBC's Persian Service on Thursday: an end to executions, the release of political and civil detainees, and an end to "harassment of forced hijab."

"In the hopes that it will eventually become feasible through collective effort, I will continue my impossible mission," he wrote.