Narges MOHAMMADI
Writer, journalist, human rights defender Narges Mohammadi was free on medical grounds as of 31 December 2024, a year in which she received three new prison sentences. Held since 16 November 2021, she is serving multiple unjust sentences, totalling 35 years’ imprisonment and 154 lashes, as well as two years of internal exile, a travel ban and various restrictions on her social and political activism.
In January 2024, Iranian authorities sentenced Mohammadi to a 15-month prison term. On 18 June 2024, Mohammadi’s lawyer announced that Branch 29 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court had sentenced her to another year in prison for ‘propaganda against the system’ related to her writings criticising Iran’s grim human rights record. The court ruling cited Mohammadi’s calls for Iranians to boycott parliamentarian elections due to a lack of democratic guarantees, as well as her letters to the Swiss and Norwegian Parliaments. On October 19, 2024, Branch 2 of the Criminal Court of the Ghods Judicial Complex in Tehran sentenced Mohammadi to six months in prison for participating in a peaceful protest against the execution of Reza Rasai, held inside Evin Prison.
Mohammadi has faced reprisals by the Iranian authorities for her human right work for over 14 years, including multiple unjust prison terms after conviction of bogus charges including ‘propaganda against the system’, ‘defamation’ and ‘rebellious conduct while incarcerated’ (see Case Lists 2023/2024, 2022, and 2021). Her family believes that many of her sentences were imposed in retaliation for her book, White Torture (Oneworld, 2022), in which she documents the experienced of imprisoned Iranian women.
Mohammadi suffers from a neurological disorder that can result in seizures, temporary partial paralysis, and a pulmonary embolism for which she is said to be denied essential medication that could prevent further blood clots from forming. She continued to be denied medical treatment throughout 2024, resulting in further health complications. Her family reported in August that she is suffering from cardiovascular issues, gastrointestinal complications, and spinal disc herniation. On 4 December 2024, Mohammadi was temporarily released from jail on medical grounds to allow her recovery from a recent surgery.
Mohammadi, born on 21 April 1972, is an Honorary Member of the Danish, Belgian, Norwegian and Swedish PEN centres. She is the former Vice-President and spokesperson of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), co-winner of the 2013 Oxfam Novib/PEN Award, winner of the 2011 Per Anger Prize and the 2009 Alexander Langer Award. In December 2022, Mohammadi was awarded the RSF Prize for Courage for her tireless fight for press freedom and human rights. In 2023, she was awarded the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Prize, UNESCO’s Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize and in October 2023, she was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.