Narges Mohammadi

Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian human and women's rights activist. Mohammadi has spent much of her adult life in prison due to her activism in Iran. Over her life, she has been arrested approximately thirteen times, convicted five times, and sentenced to a cumulative total of thirty-one years in prison and 154 lashes. As of October 2023, she is held at Evin Prison in Tehran.

Mohammadi was born on April 21, 1972, in Zanjan, Iran. She was raised in Zanjan in a middle-class family. Her father worked as a cook and a farmer. Her mother’s side of the family was involved in political activism. Mohammadi was influenced to become an activist at a young age after witnessing her mother's grief-stricken reaction to the news of her nephew's death. He was a political prisoner who was executed.

Mohammadi attended Imam Khomeini University in the early 1990s where she studied physics. She was a contributor to her school's student newspaper and wrote articles about women’s rights. She looked to join student groups specifically for women, but none existed. She decided to create them herself and founded a women’s hiking group and a women's group for civic engagement. The civic engagement group was called Tashakkol Daaneshjooei Roshangaraan, or Illuminating Student Group, meaning a group that casts light upon complex issues. Mohammadi was not allowed to partake in the mountain climbs of her hiking group due to her political activities. She was arrested twice during her time in university while attending political student group meetings. Mohammadi first met her husband, Taghi Rahmani, in university when she attended an underground class he taught on civil society in 1995. The two married in 1999.

After graduating from university and getting married, Mohammadi and her husband moved to Tehran. She began writing for Payaam-e Haajar, a magazine dedicated to women’s issues. She later worked as a journalist for several reformist papers. Her writing focused on human and women's rights. In addition to her work as a writer, Mohammadi worked as an engineer for a building inspection firm. In 2003, she became involved with the Defenders of Human Rights Center, working to defend the rights of women, political prisoners, and ethnic minorities in Iran. She was elected as cofounder Shirin Ebadi's deputy and head of the Center's women's rights committee. As such, Mohammadi often represented Ebadi and the Center at international conferences. In 2008, she was elected as president of the National Council for Peace, a group established by Ebadi at the height of the Bush administration's threats to attack Iran. The Council was founded with the intention of spreading the message that "Iranian people are peaceful."

The Defenders of Human Rights Center was banned in 2008 following Iran's election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His election marked the start of an authoritarian turn in the country's leadership. Mohammadi was arrested for her participation in the organization in 2009. She was also fired from her engineering position, and her passport was confiscated. She was released after posting a $50,000 bail but was arrested again a few nights later at her home during a raid. Mohammadi's health severely declined soon after her arrest. She developed muscular paralysis over much of her body due to the severe stress of incarceration. The Ministry of Intelligence claimed that Mohammadi was already sick and that her arrest had "merely" worsened it. Her condition improved after she was eventually released from custody one month later and taken to the hospital.

In 2011, Mohammadi's husband, Taghi Rahmani, fled into exile in France with their two children. Rahmani had previously faced legal troubles and multiple arrests himself, having spent a total of fourteen years in prison. He tried to persuade Mohammadi to go with them, but she refused because she wanted to continue her activism for human rights in Iran. Rahmani said that the birth of their children resulted in Mohammadi becoming even more aware of the significance of human rights. Mohammadi was prosecuted for her involvement with the Defenders of Human Rights Center in a show trial held in July 2011. She was first sentenced to eleven years of incarceration, but an appeals court later reduced it to six years. She remained free until her arrest in April 2012, when she was subsequently transferred to Evin Prison to begin serving her sentence. Additional accusations were made against her at that point, such as a claim by the judiciary that she was trying to purchase foreign currencies. According to Mohammadi's husband Rahmani, the claim was due to the couple's sale of government-issued bonds that they had originally purchased to receive a bank loan in order to buy an apartment but later decided against doing so.

Mohammadi was provided release on bail in July 2012 after her health deteriorated again. She continued to campaign for human rights and advocated against Iran's use of the death penalty. In October 2014, Mohammadi gave a speech criticizing the Iranian government for the death of journalist Sattar Beheshti, who died in prison after being tortured by an interrogator. A video of her speech went viral, and she was arrested in May 2015 for “gathering and colluding with intent to harm national security,” “spreading propaganda against the system,” and “founding and running an illegal organization.” She was sentenced to sixteen years in prison; it was later reduced to ten years. Again, her health deteriorated, and she spent some time in the hospital in August 2018. Mohammadi was released in October 2020 after her sentence was commuted.

In February 2021, Mohammadi skipped a court appearance for charges brought one year prior due to her activism while in prison. She was sentenced in May 2021 to thirty months in prison, two fines, and eighty lashes for propaganda, defamation, and rebellion. In September of that year, she posted to Instagram that she would not report to prison and would protest if she was sent back by force. She was arrested again in November 2021 while attending a memorial for Ebrahim Ketabdar, who was killed by Iranian forces during protests two years prior. According to Mohammadi's husband, she was physically assaulted by Iranian Ministry of Intelligence agents before her arrest. Her 2021 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize was used as evidence against her in her conviction held in January 2022. After a trial lasting only five minutes, she was sentenced to eight years in prison and seventy lashes. In addition, she was banned from participating in “institutions and parties” and “presence and activity in social networks and interviews” for the next two years. Mohammadi was hospitalized several times throughout 2022 due to various health issues. In April 2022, she had a heart attack and underwent surgery. In October 2022, Mohammadi received an additional fifteen months to her prison sentence for “propaganda against the state.”

In December 2022, Mohammadi published White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners. The book contains interviews from Mohammadi's own prison inmates and reports on the emotional impact of solitary confinement, physical abuse, and sexual assault of women prisoners in Iran. Mohammadi herself has been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and intense psychological torture. She has been denied access to medications, resulting in the worsening of already serious health conditions. In May 2023, Iranian prison authorities revoked her rights to telephone calls and visitations due to statements she had posted to Instagram that condemned Iran's violations of human rights. In August 2023, Mohammadi was sentenced to an additional year in prison for her continued activism after she gave a media interview and statement about sexual assaults in jail.

Throughout her time in prison, Mohammadi has led weekly workshops for women to educate them about civil rights. Mohammadi has not seen her husband for eleven years, nor her children for seven years. She has been repeatedly denied contact with them while in prison and has been banned from speaking directly with any of them for the past eighteen months as of October 2023. The family of four has not been together as a unit since the twin children, Ali and Kiana, were toddlers. As of 2023, the twins are sixteen years old, and they, along with Rahmani, continue to reside in France. Many across the world have called for Mohammadi's release from prison, including United States President Joe Biden, Amnesty International, and the United Nations Working Group.

The more they punish me, the more they take away from me, the more determined I become to fight until we achieve democracy and freedom and nothing less.”––Narges Mohammadi

Mohammadi was honored with the Alexander Langer Award in 2009. In 2011, she received the Per Anger Prize. In 2016, she was given the Weimar Human Rights Award. In 2018, she was awarded with the American Physical Society's Andrei Sakharov Prize. Mohammadi was listed on BBC's 100 Women of 2022, a list of influential and inspiring women around the world. She has received four awards in 2023: the Olof Palme Prize, the Barbey Freedom to Write Award, the World Press Freedom Prize, and the Nobel Peace Prize. Mohammadi publicly acknowledged the last award in a written statement from prison, stating, “I will never stop striving for the realization of democracy, freedom, and equality. Surely, the Nobel Peace Prize will make me more resilient, determined, hopeful, and enthusiastic on this path, and it will accelerate my pace.”