Narges Mohammadi
Age: 54
Activism/rights: Human rights activist
Status: Released on bail
Judicial status: 18 years’ imprisonment, 2-year ban on leaving the country and 2 years of exile
Violations: Arbitrary arrest and detention; lack of a fair trial and due process; denial of medical care; denial of access to a lawyer; sexual harassment; prolonged solitary confinement; torture and inhuman punishment; failure to observe the principle of separation of offences; deprivation of the right to leave the country and obtain a passport
Narges Mohammadi is the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights and anti-death penalty activist, vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC) and a member of the “Legam” campaign (Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty). First arrested in 1998, fired from her job for her activism in 2009, Narges has become
one of the most prominent human rights activists. In 2011, she was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment, later reduced on appeal to six years and enforced in May 2012. She was released several months later on medical grounds after the Legal Medicine Organisation declared her unfit to serve her sentence. Narges was rearrested in May 2014. In May 2016, Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, presided over by Judge Salavati, sentenced her to 16 years’ imprisonment on charges including “assembly and collusion”, “propaganda against the system”, and forming and administering the “Legam” group. The sentence was upheld on appeal. In December 2019, after joining a sit-in by female prisoners in solidarity with the families of those killed during the November 2019 protests, she was assaulted by the prison director and transferred to Zanjan Central Prison. After her release, she stated that she had been sexually assaulted during the transfer, but her complaint yielded no result. A month later, two new security-related cases were opened against her, which she rejected as “baseless”. She was released on 9 October 2020, but rearrested in November 2021. One month later, she was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment and 80 lashes. On 24 January 2022, in a five-minute trial, Narges was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and 70 lashes.In March 2022, she was arrested at home and transferred to Qarchak Prison, where she was denied medical treatment and medication. In June 2024, Branch 29 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced her to one year’s imprisonment on charges of “propaganda against the system”, citing, among other things, her boycott of parliamentary elections and letters to the Swedish and Norwegian parliaments. She was also denied access to medical treatment outside prison because she refused to comply with compulsory hijab rules, until she went on hunger strike.
The enforcement of Narges Mohammadi’s prison sentence was suspended for three weeks in December 2024 following tumour-removal surgery and a bone graft, after confirmation by the Legal Medicine Organisation, and she was granted medical furlough. While on furlough, she announced in December 2025 that she had been denied a passport and banned from leaving the country, and that she would face an additional 10 years’ imprisonment if returned to prison. In December 2025, during the seventh-day memorial ceremony for Khosrow Alikordi (see page 12), Narges was violently arrested and beaten with batons to the head and neck. She later said she had been threatened with death during the arrest and transferred twice to hospital because of the severity of the beatings. On 2 February 2026, she began a hunger strike protesting her arrest, detention, communication ban and visitation rights. She was also denied adequate medical care. On 7 February 2026, the Revolutionary Court in Mashhad sentenced her to seven years and six months’ imprisonment, a two-year travel ban, and two years of internal exile on charges of “assembly and collusion” and “propaganda against the system”. Several days later, she was transferred to Zanjan Prison. According to her brother, Hamidreza Mohammadi, she suffered a heart attack on 24 March 2026. During visits on 29 March and 11 April 2026, her family and legal team observed clear signs of serious deterioration in her physical condition. Around one month later, her lawyer reported that on 10 May 2026, after spending 10 days in a hospital in Zanjan, his client had been transferred by ambulance to Pars Hospital in Tehran. Following the posting of a heavy bail, she was admitted for urgent treatment under the supervision of her own medical team.