Nobel laureate beaten in Iranian prison, facing “life-threatening” conditions

Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has been subjected to beatings and “life-threatening mistreatment” by Iranian authorities during her arrest and detention, the Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed.

According to the committee, during her arrest in December, security forces repeatedly struck Mohammadi with wooden sticks and batons, dragged her by the hair—tearing sections of her scalp—and continued to beat her in the transport vehicle, CNN reports.

She was “repeatedly kicked in the genitals and pelvic region, leaving her unable to sit or move without severe pain,” the statement added, citing “credible reports.”

Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most prominent human rights defenders, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023. Her children, Ali and Kiana Rahmani, accepted the award on her behalf at Oslo City Hall in Norway on December 10, 2023. She has spent much of the past two decades imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

In December 2024, Iranian authorities temporarily suspended her sentence to allow recovery from surgery, but she was re-arrested a year later and remains in detention. On February 7, Mohammadi was sentenced to over seven additional years in prison, her lawyer confirmed.

The new sentence comes amid a nationwide crackdown on dissent in Iran following mass protests in January, which have plunged the country into political and social turmoil.

Mohammadi ended a hunger strike on February 8, which she had begun in early February to protest her “unlawful detention, dire prison conditions, and the denial of contact with her family and lawyers,” according to her foundation. Reports cited by the foundation described her physical condition as “deeply alarming.”

In a brief call with her lawyer Mostafa Nili on February 8, Mohammadi revealed that she had been hospitalized the previous week but was transferred back to the detention center in Mashhad before completing treatment.

Her medical history includes heart attacks, chest pain, high blood pressure, spinal disc issues, and other health complications, according to the foundation managed by her family.

By Vafa Guliyeva