Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been sentenced to an additional 15 months in prison for “spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic regime,” her family said in a statement shared on social media.
She had been a vocal supporter of the wave of protests that swept Iran after a young woman named Mahsa Amini died in custody in 2022 after she was accused of wearing insufficiently conservative clothing. On the anniversary of Amini’s death, Mohammadi and other female detainees staged a protest inside Iran’s notorious Evin Prison and burned headscarves, she said.
Mohammadi’s latest conviction is her fifth since March 2021, which in total mount to 12 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, and various social and political prohibitions, her family said Monday. She was first arrested in 2011.
“She declined to take part in any of the interrogations or trial sessions in court,” the family statement said. Mohammadi was also sentenced to two years of exile outside Tehran and was banned for two years from membership in sociopolitical groups and from using a smartphone.
Mohammadi, 51, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after a career spent helping imprisoned activists, leading a campaign against the death penalty and criticizing the “regime’s use of torture and sexualized violence,” the organization said.
“More than 20 years of fighting for women’s rights made her a symbol of freedom and standard-bearer in the struggle against the Iranian theocracy,” it said.
She was in prison when the Nobel Prize was awarded, and it was accepted by her children, who live in exile with Mohammadi’s husband in France. Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the award.
Iran’s latest judgment emphasized “accusations that she repeatedly incites and encourages public and individual opinions against the Islamic regime to sow chaos and disturbances,” her family said, adding that the judgment “resembles a political statement.”
Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, two female journalists who reported on Amini’s death, were released from prison on bail this week, Reuters reported, citing local media. After images of their release were shared online, both were charged under laws requiring women to wear a hijab, the Guardian reported.
Mizan, Iran’s judiciary news site, said new cases were brought against two female defendants after they were photographed after their release, but it did not identify them.